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ENGLAND 


NINETEENTH  CENTURY 


ENGLAND 

IN   THE 

NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 


BY 

C    W.   OMAN 


FELLOW    OF    ALL   SOULS      COLLEGE,   OXFORD 
AND    LECTURER   IN    HISTORY   AT   NEW    COLLEGE,  OXFORD 

AUTHOR   OF 

'a   history   of    GREECE    FROM    THE    EARLIEST  TIMES   TO   THE    DEATH 

OP    ALEXANDER    THE    GREAT,'     "a    HISTORY 

OF  ENGLAND,"    ETC.,  ETC. 


NEW    YORK 
LONGMANS,    GREEN,   AND    CO. 

London:   Edward  Arnold 
1899 

All  Rights  Reserved  »      > 


J      J  J  » J 


HENRY 


MORSC  STEf  HEM* 


t    ,     '.  « 


INTRODUCTION. 


From  the  time  of  the  venerable  Bede  onward  all  Western 
historians  have  been  accustomed  to  date  their  annals  by  means 
of  the  centuries,  counting  forwards  and  backwards  from  that 
year  i  a.d.  which  Dionysius  Exiguus  wrongly  fixed  as  the 
birth-date  of  our  Lord.  But  it  is  only  in  comparatively  modern 
times  that  we  have  begun  to  talk  and  think  of  those  centuries 
as  entities  with  individual  characters  and  attributes.  The 
usage  by  which  we  speak  of  a  "  nineteenth-century  idea  "  or  "  a 
thoroughly  seventeenth-century  practice  "  would  appear  strange 
to  a  critic  from  the  Middle  Ages,  whose  landmarks  in  history 
were  not  connected  with  the  centuries,  and  who  reckoned  by 
'  indictions,'  or  the  *  Seven  Ages  of  the  World,'  or  the  dynasties 
of  his  native  kingdom,  or  the  time  that  had  elapsed  since 
Augustus  or  Charlemagne.  To  see  how  entirely  artificial  is 
our  conception  of  the  centuries,  we  have  only  to  remember 
that  to  a  Moslem  the  year  1900  appears  as  131 7-1 8,  while 
a  Jew  thinks  of  it  as  5660.  But  during  the  last  eight  or  nine 
generations  the  world  has  grown  so  familiar  with  the  idea  of 
the  century  as  a  real  and  natural  division  of  time,  that  it  is 
impossible  for  us  to  disregard  it  when  dealing  with  history. 

The  practice  of  reckoning  by  the  centuries  has  at  least  one 
excellent  feature.  It  induces  the  historian  from  time  to  time 
to  take  stock  of  the  current  of  events  and  the  movement  of 
the  world  during  the  last  hundred  years  of  the  Christian  era. 
When  the  century  in  which  we  have  lived  is  slipping  from 
us,  we  begin  to  endeavour  to  formulate  our  general  views 
on  its  character,  work,  and  meaning,  even  though  its  latter 
years  are  still  too  close  to  us  to  allow  us  to  view  them  in 
accurate  historical  perspective. 


-098 LO 


vi  INTRODUCTION. 

Every  generation  has  a  point  at  which  it  places  the  begin- 
nings of  what  it  vaguely  calls  contemporary  history,  a  date 
which  marks  the  boundary  between  the  period  which  has 
passed  away  to  become  the  exclusive  property  of  the  historian, 
and  the  period  in  which  our  knowledge  is  not  drawn  entirely 
from  books.  Between  the  days  which  we  can  actually  call 
our  own  and  the  time  which  has  wholly  gone  from  us,  lies 
a  middle  period,  whose  events  and  general  character  are  made 
real  to  us,  not  only  by  literature,  but  by  the  oral  tradition  of 
the  generation  that  has  immediately  preceded  us.  The  limits 
of  the  years  known  to  us  in  this  way  are  of  course  continually 
receding,  but  at  present  the  line  of  division  is  just  approaching 
the  date  which  marks  the  end  of  the  greatest  war  which 
England  ever  waged.  There  yet  linger  among  us  rare  sur- 
vivors who  can  tell  us  that  their  earliest  memories  are  of  the 
arrival  of  the  news  that  Napoleon  was  dead,  or  even  of  the 
rejoicings  which  followed  the  crowning  victory  of  Waterloo. 
But  the  survivors  of  that  generation  are  few  and  far  between : 
the  England  of  the  Reform  Bill,  and  the  Repeal  of  the  Corn 
Laws,  and  the  Chartist  Agitation,  is  still  brought  home  to 
us  in  a  way  that  is  no  longer  possible  for  the  times  of 
George  III.  The  peace  of  1815  marks  the  division  for  us 
denizens  of  the  last  years  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and 
beyond  it  lies  a  time  when  the  conditions  of  life,  the  state  of 
politics,  the  external  relations  and  internal  movement  of  the 
country,  seem  strange  to  us,  so  far  do  they  differ  from  those 
of  the  England  of  our  own  day. 

It  is  hard  for  us,  who  for  forty-five  years  have  never  waged 
war  in  Europe,  to  realize  an  England  which  was  for  a  whole 
generation  engaged  in  an  almost  uninterrupted  struggle — for 
existence  as  well  as  for  empire — with  her  nearest  continental 
neighbour ;  an  England  who  was  not  the  preacher  of  peace 
among  nations,  but  the  untiring  fomenter  of  war,  keeping 
the  struggle  against  Bonaparte  alive  by  the  unending  subsidies 
which  she  continued  to  pour  into  the  hands  of  the  military 
powers  of  Central  and  Eastern  Europe.  It  seems  bewildering 
to  our  notions  of   English  credit,  when  we  try  to  picture  to 


INTRODUCTION.  vii 

ourselves  a  time  when  Consols  went  down  to  60,  to  50, 
nay,  on  one  occasion  to  47 ;  when  the  Bank  of  England 
was  on  one  black  day  so  near  breaking  that  it  paid  its 
customers  in  sixpences,  while  a  Bill  to  suspend  specie  pay- 
ments was  being  rapidly  run  through  the  House  of  Commons  ; 
when,  in  consequence  of  the  lavish  issue  of  paper  money, 
a  five-pound  note  was  only  worth  ^3  ijs.  lod.  in  hard  cash; 
when  the  nation  was  taxed  to  the  last  halfpenny  it  could 
bear,  and  yet  from  ^20,000,000  to  ^30,000,000  had  to  be 
borrowed  every  year  to  make  expenditure  and  receipts  balance. 

Still  stranger  is  it  to  endeavour  to  familiarize  our  minds  with 
a  time  when  Yorkshire  artisans  banded  together  to  destroy  all 
cotton-spinning  machinery ;  when  Birmingham  mobs  met  to 
burn  the  houses  of  gentlemen  suspected  of  advanced  Liberal 
opinions ;  when  the  farmers'  prayer  was  for  "  a  bloody  war  and 
a  wet  harvest/'  and  the  landowner  who  enclosed  common-land 
was  coiinted  a  public  benefactor  as  well  as  a  sharp  man  of 
business. 

But  however  unfamiliar  many  of  the  characteristics  of  the 
time  of  the  great  war  of  1 793-1 81 5  may  appear  to  us,  it  is  in 
that  period  that  we  must  look  for  the  rise  and  development 
of  most  of  the  peculiar  features  of  modern  England.  Within 
those  twenty-three  years,  and  as  a  direct  consequence  of  the 
maritime  war,  we  finally  secured  our  commercial  supremacy, 
and  became  the  carriers  of  the  world's  merchandise.  The 
frantic  efforts  of  France  to  strike  down  our  trade  only  resulted 
in  creating  and  increasing  a  monopoly  for  us,  where  previously 
we  had  been  merely  the  most  important  among  a  number  of 
competitors.  Equally  within  the  compass  of  the  years  of  the 
war  lies  the  great  revolution  in  English  industry  which  made 
our  country  manufacturing  rather  than  agricultural,  a  change 
which  has  altered  ail  the  conditions  of  life  in  a  way  which  we 
hardly  realize  till  we  attempt  to  call  up  the  details  of  last- 
century  social  economy.  This  transformation  within  was  con- 
temporaneous with  a  growth  of  the  British  Empire  without, 
unparalleled  before  or  since.  In  one  generation  our  Indian 
territories   swelled   from   being   a  single   province  and  a  few 


viii  INTRODUCTION. 

scattered  ports,  to  a  great  land  dominion  stretching  along  tli 
upper  waters  of  the  Ganges  and  Jumna,  and  encroaching  on 
to  the  great  central  tableland  of  the  Deccan.  In  the  two  short 
viceroyalties  of  Cornwallis  and  Wellesley  our  possessions  were 
doubled  or  even  tripled  in  extent,  and  our  influence  rendered 
paramount  over  almost  the  whole  peninsula.  Simultaneously 
the  colonies  of  France,  Spain,  and  Holland  fell  before  us,  and 
the  British  flag  waved  from  a  hundred  points  on  the  Atlantic 
and  Indian  Oceans  where  it  had  previously  been  unknown. 
Australia  saw  the  beginnings  of  the  modest  settlement  of  New 
South  Wales,  and  in  Canada  the  British  began  to  preponderate 
by  emigration  over  the  French  provincial  element,  so  that  the 
country  became  a  colony  rather  than  a  military  possession. 

No  less  important  is  it  that  to  the  years  of  our  struggle  with 
France  belongs  the  formation  of  political  parties  in  England, 
which  we  can  recognize  as  the  progenitors  of  those  of  our  own 
days.  "Whig"  and  "Tory"  at  the  end  of  the  Great  War  mean 
something  very  different  from  "  Whig "  and  "  Tory "  at  its 
beginning.  The  political  creeds  of  the  rival  statesmen  of  1780 
often  seem  incomprehensible  to  us.  Those  of  their  successors 
of  1815 — differing  though  they  may  in  many  ways  from  those  of 
the  Liberals  and  Conservatives  of  to-day — show  definitely  the 
mark  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  are  manifesdy  capable 
of  development  into  their  later  shapes.  We  may  even  note  that 
the  first  popular  use  of  the  word  "  Radical,"  as  applied  to  poli- 
ticians, dates  from  the  second  decade  of  the  period  of  which 
we  are  about  to  treat. 

It  is  unfortunate,  from  the  point  of  view  of  completen-ess,  that 
the  boundary  of  the  century  prevents  us  from  dealing  with  the 
commencement  of  the  struggle  with  France.  Logically,  we 
should  start  in  1793,  and  not  on  the  ist  of  January,  1801,  if  we 
are  thoroughly  to  understand  the  England  of  181 5.  But  bound 
down  by  the  prescribed  limits  of  our  subject,  we  must  adhere 
to  its  strict  chronology,  and  open  our  story  in  the  year  before 
the  Treaty  of  Amiens,  ere  even  the  short  breathing-space  of 
peace  in  1802-3  had  broken  the  continuity  of  the  great 
French  war. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTBR  fAGB 

I.     The  Peace  of  Amiens.     1801-1802  ...  ...  ...        i 

II.    The    Struggle    with    Bonaparte  :    (i)  The    Naval 

War.     1803-1806        ...  ...  ...  ...  10 

III.  The    Struggle    with    Bonaparte  :    (2)  The    Conti- 

nental System — The  Peninsular  War — Waterloo. 
1806-1815  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...      27 

IV.  From  the  Fall  of  Bonaparte  to  the  Great  Reform 

Bill.     1815-1832        ...  ...  ...  ...  53 

V.    From    the   Great  Reform    Bill   to    the    Crimean 

War.     1832-1853  ...  ...  ...  ...      80 

VI.    Early  Victorian  England.    A  Survey  ...  109 

VII.    From   the   Crimean  War   to   the  Death  of  Lord 

Palmerston.     1853-1865  ...  ...  ...  ...     127 

VIII.     Disraeli  and  Gladstone.     1865-1885     ...  ...  152 

IX.     The  PIome  Rule  Question  and   Imperialism.     1886- 

1899        ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...     186 

X.    India    and    the    Colonies— Imperial    Federation — 

Conclusion  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  212 

Appendices — 

Table  of  British  Ministries  of  the  Nineteenth  Century    ...  262 

Population  of  the  United  Kingdom,  1801-189 1        ...  264 

The  National  Debt,  1800- 1899  ...  ...  ...  264 

Foreign  Sovereigns  of  the  Nineteenth  Century        ...  265 
Typical   Budgets    of  the   Century:    1802,    1810,    1820, 

1846,  1855,  1898  266 

Index  ...  ...  .-  ...  ...  ...  269 


MAPS   AND   PLANS. 


PAGK 

Spain  and  Portugal,  1803-1814     ...           ...  •••           ...      36 

Europe  in  1811-1812    ...            ...            ...  ...           ...             43 

Sebastopol  and  its  Neighbourhood           ...  ...           ...     133 

Growth  of  the  British  Empire  in  India  .•,           ...           221 

Growth  of  the  British  Empire  in  Africa  •••           «.    254 


ENGLAND 

IN  THE 

NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 

CHAPTER  I. 

THE    PEACE    OF    AMIENS. 

When  the  nineteenth  century  opened,  on  New  Year's  Day 
1 80 1,  England  was  still  engaged  in  the  weary  war  with  revolu- 
tionary France.  The  struggle  had  already  raged 
for  eight  years,  and  seemed  as  far  from  an  end  as  ^j^.^  pr^fe. 
ever.  It  made  little  difference  to  its  character 
that  the  government  with  which  the  contest  had  to  be  fought 
out  was  no  longer  the  corrupt  Directory  of  Barras.  The 
military  despotism  of  the  new  First  Consul,  Napoleon  Bona- 
parte, was  quite  as  hostile  to  England,  and  infinitely  more 
formidable.  Till  he  had  tried  his  strength  against  her  and 
learnt  the  limitations  of  his  power,  Bonaparte  was  not  likely 
to  come  to  terms. 

Moreover,  we  had  just  ascertained  that  we  should  have  to 
fight  him  single-handed.    The  last  of  our  powerful  isolation  of 
continental  allies  was  now  about  to  withdraw  from  Great 
the  struggle.     Austria  had  already  opened  nego-     ^^    ^"* 
tiations  for  peace  with  the  First  Consul :  since  the  defeat  of 


2  ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

Hohenlinden  (December  3,  1800)  her  position  seemed  un- 
tenable, and  she  was  glad  to  be  permitted  to  retire  from  the 
war,  still  retaining  her  ill-gotten  gains  in  Italy,  the  lands  of 
the  unfortunate  republic  of  Venice. 

Bonaparte  had  resolved  to  let  her  off  easily  :  not  only  did  he 
wish  to  have  his  hands  free  for  the  duel  with  Great  Britain  and 

the  internal  reorganization  of  France,  but  he  was 
of  Limeville.    jealous  lest  Moreau,  the  victor  of  Hohenlinden, 

might  dictate  peace  at  the  gates  of  Vienna,  and  so 
cast  into  the  shade  his  own  achievements  at  Marengo  in  the 
previous  summer.  Hence  came  the  peace  of  Luneville  (Feb- 
ruary 9,  1 801),  which  took  Austria  out  of  the  struggle  against 
Bonaparte  for  more  than  four  years. 

Russia,  the  other  ally  of  England  in  the  war  of  1798-9, 
had  already  made  her  peace  with  France  :  the  eccentric  Czar 

R  i  —the  ^^^^  ^^^  ^°^  ^^^^  thrown  over  the  British 
Armed  alliance,  but  had  ranged  himself  on  the  side  of 

Neutrality.  Britain's  enemies.  Inspired  by  a  perverse  and 
wrong-headed  admiration  for  the  person  of  the  First  Consul,  he 
had  set  himself  to  aid  him  by  every  means  in  his  power.  In 
December,  1800,  he  had  formed  a  League  of  the  Baltic  Powers  : 
Sweden,  Denmark,  and  Prussia  declared  an  "  Armed  Neu- 
trality "  during  the  remainder  of  the  struggle  between  England 
and  France.  Though  not  nominally  directed  against  the 
former  power,  the  "Armed  Neutrality"  was  practically  a 
declaration  of  hostility  against  her,  for  the  confederates  under- 
took to  oppose — if  necessary,  by  force  of  arms — the  English 
doctrine  that  a  neutral  flag  did  not  cover  the  goods  of  a 
belligerent  on  the  high  seas.  The  theory  that  neutral  ships 
might  be  searched  for  contraband  merchandise  has  long  been 
abandoned,  but  in  1801  it  was  strongly  held  by  British  states- 
men, and  had  already  caused  much  friction  with  Denmark  and 
other  powers.  The  hot-headed  Czar  had  followed  up  his 
declaration  of  Armed  Neutrality  by  seizing  the  English  ships 
ice-bound  in    Russian   ports,  and  throwing    their   crews   into 


GREAT   BRITAIN   IN    1801.  3 

prison — proceedings   which   left   no   doubt   as   to   his    future 
policy. 

In  1 80 1,  therefore,  England  had  to  face  not  only  her  old 
enemy  across  the  Channel,  but  the  new  league  of  the  Baltic 
states.  The  prospect  was  not  cheering,  for  the  Domestic 
internal  condition  of  the  United  Kingdom  was  difficulties  of 
anything  but  satisfactory.  The  last  throes  of  the  ^"S^^"^- 
Irish  rebellion  had  died  down,  and  in  1800  Castlereagh  had 
bribed  and  cajoled  the  Parliament  on  St.  Stephen's  Green  to 
vote  away  its  own  legislative  independence  and  consent  to  the 
Union  with  Great  Britain.  But  if  the  position  in  Ireland  was 
less  desperate  than  it  had  been  three  years  before,  the  general 
aspect  of  domestic  affairs  was  gloomy.  Dearth  had  prevailed 
all  through  1800,  and  the  rise  in  the  price  of  bread  had  been 
followed  by  its  usual  consequences  of  discontent  and  riot. 
The  National  Debt  was  piling  itself  up  at  the  most  fearful  rate 
— the  revenue  had  been  in  1800  only  ^^39, 000, 000,  while  the 
expenditure  had  been  ^,{^63, 000, 000 ;  the  immense  diiference 
between  the  two  had  to  be  made  up  by  borrowing.  The 
military  enterprises  of  Great  Britain  had  been  uniformly  un- 
successful, save  indeed  in  India.  The  last  of  them,  the  invasion 
of  Holland  in  1799,  had  been  perhaps  the  worst  managed  of 
the  whole  series.  It  was  true  that  we  had  been  as  regularly 
victorious  at  sea  as  we  had  been  unfortunate  on  land,  but  even 
our  greatest  triumphs — Camperdown,  St.  Vincent,  and  the  Nile 
— had  been  defensive  rather  than  offensive  successes.  We  had 
prevented  France  and  her  allies  from  insulting  our  own  shores, 
or  from  gaining  a  mastery  in  the  waters  of  the  Mediterranean. 
But  Jervis,  Duncan,  and  Nelson  had  been  powerless  to  check 
the  establishment  of  a  French  domination  on  the  mainland  of 
Western  Europe.  We  had  swept  the  mercantile  marine  of 
France,  Spain,  and  Holland  from  the  seas,  and  appropriated 
their  carrying  trade.  Yet,  since  our  great  enemy  had  never 
been  mainly  dependent  on  its  seaborne  commerce,  and  since 
the  woes  of  Dutch  or  Spanish  merchants  were  not  likely  to 


4  ENGLAND    IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

touch  Bonaparte's  heart,  we  could  bring  comparatively  little 
pressure  to  bear  upon  France.  It  was  not  till  he  tried  his 
worst  against  Great  Britain  and  found  that  he  could  not  hope  to 
deal  her  any  serious  blow,  that  the  First  Consul  evinced  any 
real  desire  for  peace.  Meanwhile  he  hoped  to  retain  his  new 
conquest  of  Egypt,  and  to  bring  to  the  aid  of  the  shattered 
navies  of  France  and  Spain  the  fresh  naval  resources  of  the 
Baltic  powers. 

It  was  not  under  the  guidance  of  William  Pitt,  whose 
unswerving  hand  had  hitherto  directed  the  foreign  policy  of 
Great  Britain,  that  the  last  year  of  the  Revolu- 
of^pStT  ^°  tionary  war  was  destined  to  be  fought  out. 
Early  in  1801  he  resigned  his  office,  on  a  question 
which,  important  enough  in  itself,  was  yet  but  a  side  issue  in 
this  time  of  stress  and  peril.  While  negotiating  the  details  of 
the  Union  with  Ireland,  he  had  pledged  his  word  to  the  Irish 
Catholics  to  introduce  in  the  new  United  Parliament  legislation 
for  the  relief  of  their  many  political  disabilities.  This  he  was 
preparing  to  do,  when  he  found  that  the  old  king  was  deter- 
mined to  put  his  veto  on  any  such  action.  Of  the  many  deep- 
rooted  prejudices  of  George  III.  none  was  more  violent  than 
his  dislike  for  Romanists,  and  he  had  contrived  to  persuade 
himself  that  to  give  his  assent  to  such  a  bill  as  Pitt  was  drafting 
would  involve  him  in  a  breach  of  his  Coronation  Oath,  "  to 
defend  the  Protestant  Church  as  by  law  established."  When 
informed  of  the  king's  resolve,  Pitt  resigned  (February,  1801)  : 
his  exaggerated  sense  of  loyalty  to  his  old  master  prevented 
him  from  forcing  matters  to  the  point  of  actual  conflict  between 
king  and  ministry.  He  has  been  much  censured,  both  for 
leaving  the  helm  of  state  when  the  foreign  danger  was  still 
so  great,  and  for  refusing  to  bring  stronger  pressure  on  the 
king,  who,  in  spite  of  his  obstinacy,  might  have  yielded  at  the 
actual  moment  of  friction. 

With  Pitt  some  of  his  personal  friends  retired  from  office, 
but  the  Tories  still  retained  their  hold  on  the  government,  and 


THE  FRENCH  EXPELLED  FROM  EGYPT.       $ 

continued  to  carry  out  Pitt's  policy  in  every  detail.     The  new 
prime   minister  was    Henry  Addington,   Speaker  ^ddine-ton 
of  the   House    of  Commons,  a    man   of  narrow  prime 
views  and  limited  ability,  chiefly  notable  for  his  "^^"^^  ^^' 
subservience  to  the  crown  and  his  utter  want  of  originality. 
Addington,  and  not  Pitt,  was  the  man  destined  to  bring  the  great 
Revolutionary  war  to  its  end,  though  to  his  predecessor  must  be 
given  the  credit  of  devising  the  measures  which  finally  brought 
it  to  a  successful  conclusion. 

Before  leaving  office   Pitt  had  made  arrangements  for  the 
carrying  out  of  two  great    expeditions,    both   of  which   were 
destined  to  win  complete  success.     The  first  was  j^,     Ee^o- 
aimed  against  the  new  French  colony  in  Egypt,  tian  expe- 
An  English  army  concentrated  in  the   Mediter-  ""^°"* 
ranean  was  to  land  in  the  Delta  and  assail  the  French  from  the 
front,  while  a  subsidiary  force  from  India  ascended  the  Red 
Sea,  crossed  the  desert,  and  struck  into   the  valley  of  the  Nile 
south  of  Cairo.     As  it  chanced,  the  Indian  army  arrived  too 
late    to   take  any    part  in  the  fighting,    the  larger  expedition 
having  done  all  the  work. 

The  French  general  Menou,  who  had  to  face  the   attack, 
chanced  to  be  wholly  incompetent.     He  was  an  eccentric  and 
histrionic  personage,  who  had  embraced  Mohamet-  -pj^^  French 
anism  to  please  Bonaparte,  and  thought  more  of  expelled 
his  poses  and  of  his  proclamations  than  of  strategy.    ^°"^     Sy?^' 
He  divided  his  troops  up  into  two  bodies,  so  that  the  20,000 
EngUsh  who  landed  at  Aboukir,  under  Sir  Ralph  Abercromby, 
were  superior  to  each  fraction,  though  far  inferior  in  number  to 
the  whole  army  of  Egypt.     Two  fights  in  front  of  Alexandria 
broke  the  main  force  of  the  French,  though  the  gallant  Aber- 
cromby fell  in  the  moment  of  victory.     After  short  sieges  the 
two  halves  of  Menou's  army,  shut  up  the  one  in  Cairo  and  the 
other  in  Alexandria,  laid  down  their  arms,  and  all  Egypt  was 
in  our  hands  (March-July,  1801).     Bonaparte's  dream   of  an 
Eastern    empire   had    come    to    a    disastrous   end.     This  was 


6  ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

inevitable  from  the  first;   without  command  of  the  sea  such 
an  outlying  possession  could  not  possibly  be  maintained. 

Not  less  complete  was  the  success  of  the  English  in  the 
Baltic   against   the    signatories   of  the  declaration    of  Armed 

Neutrality.  The  bitter  northern  winter,  which 
expediSon!      ^^^^^  ^P  ^^^  Russian  and  Swedish  ports,  prevented 

the  early  concentration  of  the  allied  fleets. 
Before  the  ice  had  broken  up,  an  English  squadron  had  been 
sent  off,  with  orders  to  throw  itself  between  the  scattered 
divisions  of  the  enemy,  and  to  destroy  them  in  detail.  Such  a 
plan  was  absolutely  necessary,  for  if  the  confederate  navies 
could  have  massed  themselves  they  might  have  taken  the  sea 
with  more  than  fifty  ships  of  the  line,  and  the  British  squadron 
numbered  no  more  than  eighteen.  Nelson  sailed  with  them, 
but  only  as  second-in-command  :  by  some  inexplicable  stupidity 
of  those  in  charge  at  the  Admiralty,  he  had  been  placed  under 
the  orders  of  Sir  Hyde  Parker,  a  respectable  veteran  destitute 
of  all  initiative  and  dash.  The  squadron  reached  the  Sound 
on  March  30,  and  three  days  later  attacked  Copenhagen, 
while  the  Russians  and  Swedes  were  still  wholly  ignorant  of 
their  approach. 

The  Danes  had  protected  their  capital  and  arsenal  by  a  line 
of  floating  batteries   interspersed  with  ships  of  war.     Parker 

thought  their  front  almost  too  formidable  to  be 
Copenhag-en    attacked,  but  finally  gave  Nelson  permission  to 

go  in  with  twelve  ships  and  do  his  best.  The 
approach  lay  up  a  narrow  channel  between  sandbanks,  on 
which  more  than  one  of  the  English  ships  went  aground.  But 
Nelson  forced  his  way  up  to  the  enemy,  and  engaged  with  them 
in  the  most  furious  cannonade  of  the  whole  Revolutionary  war. 
No  other  of  England's  enemies  fought  their  ships  with  such 
splendid  obstinacy  as  the  Danes  :  for  some  time  Nelson  seemed 
to  be  making  so  little  progress  that  his  cautious  superior  hung 
out  signals  desiring  him  to  draw  off  and  retire.  But  Nelson 
turned  his  blind  eye  to  the  signals,  and  persisted  in  the  fight 


THE   TREATY   OF   AMIENS.  7 

till  the  Danish  floating  batteries  were  burnt  or  sunk.  Although 
the  shore  forts  still  held  out,  the  Prince  Regent  of  Denmark 
then  yielded  to  Nelson's  summons,  and  consented  to  suspend 
his  adherence  to  the  Armed  Neutrality.  The  British  fleet  was 
then  directed  against  Cronstadt,  but  its  presence  in  Russian 
waters  turned  out  to  be  unnecessary.  Ten  days  before  the 
battle  of  Copenhagen  the  Czar  Paul  had  fallen,  the  victim  of  a 
palace  conspiracy.  His  constant  petty  tyranny  and  his  mad 
caprices  had  driven  his  nobles  to  desperation,  and  on  the  night 
of  March  23,  1801,  he  was  strangled  in  his  bedroom  by  a 
band  of  his  own  courtiers.  His  son  and  successor,  Alexander, 
at  once  reversed  his  policy,  released  the  English  prisoners,  and 
declared  that  the  Baltic  league  was  at  an  end. 

Thus  the  new  and  formidable  weapon  which  Bonaparte  had 
intended  to  turn  against  Great  Britain  was  shattered,  a  few 
months  before  the  last  French  garrison  in  Egypt  Conclusion 
was  driven  to  surrender.  Foiled  in  both  quarters,  of  the  Treaty 
the  First  Consul  at  last  began  to  make  genuine  of  Amiens, 
overtures  for  peace  :  his  earlier  offers  had  no  reality  in  them. 
Addington  and  his  cabinet  were  far  from  realizing  the  bitter 
hatred  of  England  which  Bonaparte  nourished  in  his  heart, 
and  believed  that  a  permanent  pacification  with  him  presented 
no  insuperable  difficulties.  The  negotiations,  which  com- 
menced in  the  summer  of  1801,  dragged  on  for  many 
months,  and  the  definite  Treaty  of  Amiens  was  only  signed 
on  March  27,  1802. 

By  it  England  acknowledged  the  government  of  the  First 
Consul,  and  accepted  accomplished  facts   by  recognizing  the 
new  boundaries    of   France   and   of  her  vassals, 
the  Batavian,  Helvetic,  and  Cisalpine  Republics  the°Trea"v° 
— new  names  which  cloaked  the  identity  of  the 
Seven  United  Provinces,  of  the   Swiss  Confederates,  and   of 
Lombardy.     Great    Britain    restored   to    France   all    her   lost 
colonies  in  the  West  and  East  Indies ;  but  Bonaparte — always 
liberal  with  the  property  of  his  unfortunate  alhes— allowed 


8  ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

the  conqueror  to  retain  the  Spanish  island  of  Trinidad  in  the 
West,  and  in  the  East  the  important  Dutch  settlement  of 
Ceylon.  Charles  IV.  of  Spain  and  the  Batavian  Republic, 
however,  received  back  the  rest  of  the  possessions  of  which 
they  had  been  stripped,  the  former  recovering  the  island  of 
Minorca,  the  latter  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  both  points  of 
high  strategical  importance  which  English  statesmen  sur- 
rendered with  deep  regret.  One  more  among  the  numerous 
clauses  of  the  treaty  requires  mention — England  had  just 
captured  Malta,  w4iich  Bonaparte,  in  1798,  had  lawlessly  seized 
from  the  Knights  of  St.  John  without  any  declaration  of  war. 
The  treaty  provided  that  this  important  island,  the  key  of 
the  central  Mediterranean,  should  be  evacuated  by  the  British 
forces  and  restored  to  its  original  owners,  when  the  Order 
should  have  been  reconstituted  and  remodelled.  Herein  lay 
the  germs  of  much  future  trouble. 

By  the  Treaty  of  Amiens  England,  perhaps,  gave  up  more 
than  was  absolutely  necessary.  Her  position  was  a  very 
Expediency  strong  one  after  the  French  failures  in  Egypt 
of  the  Treaty  and  the  Baltic;  and  it  was  only  a  genuine  wish 
iscusse  .  ^^j.  pg^(.g^  ^^^^  ^  misplaced  confidence  in  the  good 
intentions  of  Bonaparte,  which  led  the  Addington  ministry  to 
give  up  so  many  valuable  conquests.  England,  in  spite  of  all 
her  financial  burdens,  had  still  plenty  of  strength  left  in  her. 
The  expense  of  the  war,  monstrous  as  it  had  been,  was  almost 
made  up  to  her  by  the  extraordinary  growth  of  English  com- 
merce since  1793.  The  destruction  of  the  mercantile  marine 
of  France,  Spain,  and  Holland  had  led  to  an  unjxiralleled 
expansion  in  our  trade.  In  1793  the  export  of  British  manu- 
factures had  been  to  the  value  of  ;^i4,7oo,ooo  ;  in  1801  it 
had  risen  to  ;£"24,4oo,ooo.  Similarly,  at  the  earlier  date  we 
had  re-exported  ^5,400,000  of  foreign  and  colonial  goods; 
in  1 801  the  figures  had  tripled,  and  were  recorded  as 
^17,100,000.  The  number  of  British  ships  at  sea  had  risen 
from    16,000  to   18,000,  in   spite  of  all  French  privateering. 


THE   ENGLISH   IN   INDIA.  9 

If  we  had  failed  to  prevent  the  estabUshment  of  the  French 
domination  on  the  continent  of  Western  Europe,  France  had 
failed  quite  as  signally  in  her  attempts  to  demolish  our  com- 
mercial and  maritime  supremacy.  During  the  heat  of  the 
war  we  had  grasped  the  control  of  Southern  India,  by  putting 
down  Bonaparte's  ally,  Tippoo  Sultan  of  Mysore  (1799);  the 
"  Great  Proconsul "  Wellesley  was,  at  the  very  moment  of  the 
Treaty  of  Amiens,  watching  his  opportunity  to  lay  the  founda- 
tions of  British  power  in  the  central  and  northern  regions  of 
Hindostan  by  interfering  in  the  affairs  of  the  Mahratta  states, 
a  project  which  he  was  to  take  in  hand  before  the  year  1802 
had  expired. 

Yet,  even  when  all  these  facts  are  taken  into  consideration, 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  Addington  and  his  cabinet  were 
fully  justified  in  concluding  peace  with  France.  War  is  such 
a  fearful  burden,  and  its  chances  are  so  incalculable,  that  no 
government  which  is  offered  an  honourable  and  not  unprofit- 
able peace  should  hesitate  to  accept  it,  merely  because  there 
is  some  prospect  of  obtaining  yet  better  terms  at  some  future 
date.  The  one  mistake  made  was  in  thinking  that  Bonaparte 
was  sincerely  anxious  for  an  equitable  pacification,  and  wished 
to  dwell  beside  us  as  a  quiet  neighbour.  But  the  statesmen 
of  1 80 1  could  not  know  his  character  as  we  know  it  after  a 
study  of  his  whole  career ;  they  were  quite  excusable  if  they 
were  deceived  by  his  plausible  verbiage,  and  allowed  him 
some  credit  for  the  magnificent  and  praiseworthy  sentiments 
which  he  professed. 


CHAPTER  IT. 

TKl  STRUGGLE   WITH    BONAPARTE  :     (l)    THE    NAVAL    WA?.. 
1803-1806. 

The  peace  from  which  so  much  had  been  hoped  was  to 
endure  for  no  more  than  thirteen  months.  But  in  March, 
1802,  well-nigh  all  men  on  this  side  of  the  Channel  believed 
that  the  struggle  with  France  had  reached  its  end,  and  thought 
that  a  period  of  rest,  economy,  and  retrenchment  had  set  in. 
Britain  was  to  turn  to  account  the  complete  sovereignty  of 
the  seas  and  the  new  Indian  empire  which  she  had  gained, 
and,  by  a  careful  development  of  trade  and  manufactures, 
was  to  free  herself  from  the  burden  of  her  vast  national  debt. 
The  army  and  navy  were  reduced  with  a  haste  that  was  to 
produce  much  trouble  ere  the  year  was  out.  So  great  were 
the  expectations  that  were  entertained  of  the  prosperity  that 
was  to  result  from  the  peace,  that  when  the  French  ambas- 
sador arrived  in  London,  his  carriage  was  actually  drawn 
through  the  streets  by  the  populace,  and  a  general  illumination 
testified  to  the  national  joy.  Great  numbers  of  English  at 
once  embarked  on  continental  travel — a  pleasure  which  had 
been  denied  them  for  more  than  eight  years,  and  for  which 
many  of  them  were  to  pay  dearly  in  1803. 

Bonaparte's  objects  in  coming  to  terms  with  England  had 
been  twofold.  He  wished  for  an  interval  of  quiet  in  which  to 
prepare  for  that  assumption  of  regal  power  which  he  had 
already   determined   to   carry   out.      But   he  also   wished   to 


BONAPARTE'S   ANNEXATIONS   IN    1802.  11 

recover   the   lost  French   colonies,  and   to   gain   time  to   re- 
build the  shattered  French  navy,  which  in  1802 
had  been  reduced  to  less  than  forty  ships  of  the  policy, 
line.     In  a  few  years  he  intended  to  create  a  new 
fleet,  which  should  be  able  to  dispute  with  that  of  Britain  the 
mastery  of  the  seas.     Moreover,  observing  the  enthusiasm  with 
which   peace  was   greeted   in   England,  he  fancied   that  our 
government  would  wink  at  several  new  aggressions  which  he 
was  contemplating  on  the  continent.     Rather  than  renew  the 
war,  he  imagined  that  the  weak  Addington  would  submit  to 
many  humiliations.     In  this  respect   he  wholly  misconceived 
the  situation  ;  he  underrated  the  wariness  and  national  pride 
of  his  opponents  to  an  absurd  degree. 

Only  a  few  months  had  elapsed  after  the  Treaty  of  Amiens 
had  been  signed,  when  the  First  Consul  began  to  take  in  hand 
some  measures  which  were  certain  to  irritate  pj.ggij 
England.  In  September  he  annexed  to  France  annexations 
Piedmont  and  the  rest  of  the  continental  terri-  ^  ranee. 
tories  of  the  King  of  Sardinia,  though  that  unfortunate  monarch 
had  given  him  no  provocation  whatever.  Parma  was  at  the 
same  time  appropriated,  though  compensation  was  in  this  case 
given  to  the  dispossessed  Bourbon  duke.  Soon  after  Bonaparte 
sent  30,000  men  into  Switzerland,  and  overturned  there  a 
government  which  was  not  sufficiently  subservient  to  his 
interests.  When  England  protested  against  this  high-handed 
action,  he  merely  replied  that  she  had  no  concern  with  con- 
tinental affairs,  since  there  was  no  mention  of  Piedmont  or  the 
Helvetic  Republic  in  the  Treaty  of  Amiens.  On  his  part  he 
began  to  declaim  against  our  government  because  Malta  had 
not  yet  been  evacuated  :  we  had  agreed  to  restore  the  island 
to  the  Order  of  the  Knights  of  St.  John,  but  since  they  had  not 
yetljeen  reorganized,  our  troops  were  still  in  possession.  How- 
ever, actual  preparations  for  their  departure  had  begun  when 
the  First  Consul's  action  caused  them  to  be  suspended. 

Even  before  these  matters  of  foreign  policy  had  come  to  a 


13  ENGLAND   IN    THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

head,  Bonaparte  had  created  much  ill  feeUng  in  England  by 
Insults  to  making  some  extraordinary  demands  from  our 
British  government.     He  proposed  that  we  should  expel 

Government.   ^^^^  ^^^  gj^^j.^^  ^^^  princes  of  the  old  royal  family 

of  France  and  certain  other  refugees,  a  request  for  the  violation 
of  English  hospitality  which  was  naturally  refused.  He  also 
made  an  astonishing  demand  for  the  suppression  of  certain 
English  newspapers  and  pamphlets,  wherein  his  conduct  and 
policy  were  being  discussed  with  the  usual  freedom  of  political 
papers.  When  Lord  Hawkesbury  made  the  natural  reply  that 
in  England  the  press  was  free,  and  that  it  was  not  our  wont  to 
expel  foreign  exiles  who  had  done  nothing  against  our  laws, 
the  First  Consul  pretended  to  regard  himself  as  outrageously 
insulted  (August  17,  1802). 

His  ill-will  was  notably  manifest  in  the  regulations  against 
English  trade  which  he  maintained.  He  utterly  refused  to 
Hojtilitv  to  ^^^^  ^"^  commercial  treaty,  and  caused  crushing 
En£,lish  duties  to  be  laid  on  English  goods,  not  only  in 

*•  France,    but    throughout    the    territories    of   her 

vaj;sal  republics.  He  also  sent  agents  and  spies  all  over  Great 
Britain  and  the  British  empire,  to  discover  our  exact,  military 
and  commercial  resources.  The  final  outbreak  of  wrath 
against  him  on  this  side  of  the  Channel  was  largely  caused 
by  the  publication  of  the  papers  of  one  of  his  agents,  General 
Sebastiani,  which  were  filled  with  elaborate  plans  for  putting 
the  French  again  in  possession  of  Egypt,  and  for  undermining 
English  trade  in  the  Levant. 

It  was  no  wonder  that  in  the  winter  of  1802-3  the  English 
ministers  made  up  their  minds  that  another  war  was  probably 
The  British  ^^  sight.  They  resolved  to  retain  a  firm  hold  on 
ambassador  Malta,  and  to  delay  the  surrender  of  the  Cape  of 
e  .  Good  Hope,  Pondicherry,  and  such  other  French 

possessions  as  had  not  yet  been  given  back.  When  Parliament 
met  in  March,  the  prime  minister  announced  that  the  army  and 
navy,  instead  of  being  further  reduced,  would  require  certain 


RUPTURE  WITH  FRANCE.  13 

additions.  It  was  the  news  of  these  measures  which  led 
Bonaparte  to  show  his  hand :  he  summoned  the  EngUsh 
ambassador,  Lord  Whitworth,  to  the  Tuileries,  and,  in  the 
presence  of  a  large  assembly,  delivered  an  angry  harangue  at 
him.  He  accused  the  English  cabinet  of  violating  the  Treaty 
of  Amiens  with  deliberate  treachery,  cried  that  they  should 
have  war  if  they  wanted  it,  "  but  if  they  are  the  first  to  draw 
the  sword,  I  shall  be  the  last  to  put  it  back  into  the  scabbard. 
Woe  to  those  who  violate  treaties ;  they  shall  answer  for  the 
consequences  to  all  Europe  "  (March  13,  1803). 

After  such  a  scene  the  Addington  cabinet  felt  that  war  was 
inevitable ;  they  began  hurriedly  to  refit  our  dismantled  fleet, 
and    to    re-embody    our    disbanded    battalions.  England 
Bonaparte,  on    the    other  hand,  began  to  move  dechres 
troops  from  inland  France  towards  the  shores  of  ^^^* 
the  Channel,  and  set  naval  preparations  afoot  in  all  his  ports, 
especially  in  the  new  arsenal  of  Antwerp.     Some  negotiations, 
half-hearted  on  both  sides,  dragged  on  for  nearly  two  months 
more ;  but  when  the  First  Consul  insisted  that  we  should  not 
only  recognize  the  legality  of  his  doings  in  Italy  and  Switzer- 
land, but  also  at  once  evacuate  Malta,  it  was  obvious  that  there 
could   be   no   yielding.       On   the    12th    of    May,   1803,   our 
ambassador  left  Paris,  and  the  declaration  of  war  on   France 
promptly  followed. 

It  is  probable  that  at  first  Bonaparte  had  merely  intended  to 
bully  and  hector  the  British  Government  into  condoning  his 
annexations  in  Italy,  and  had  assumed  his  aggres-  Sej^ure  of 
sive  airs  in  the  full  confidence  that  Addington  and  English 
his  cabinet  would  give  way.     When  they  refused 
to  yield  an  inch,  and  met  his  menaces  with  a  declaration  of 
war,  he  showed  all  the  irritation  of  a  man  deceived  in  his  ex- 
pectations.    His  first  act  was  a  sign  of  uncontrollable  vexation, 
and  not  the  least  among  his  numerous  violations  of  international 
law.     He  seized  all  the   English  tourists  and  travellers    who 
were  passing  through  France  for  pleasure  or  business,  and  put 


14  ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

ihem  in  confinement  as  if  they  had  been  prisoners  of  war. 
They  were  about  10,000  in  number,  and  Bonaparte  actually 
had  the  cruelty  to  keep  them  confined  during  the  whole  of  the 
war,  so  that  those  who  had  not  escaped  or  died  were  still  in  his 
hands  when  he  was  overthrown  in  1814.  Another  sign  of  his 
wrath  was  that  he  persistently  continued  to  accuse  the  British 
Government  of  hiring  assassins  to  attempt  his  life — ascribing  all 
conspiracies  against  him,  whether  the  work  of  royalist  fanatics 
or  discontented  republicans,  to  English  gold. 

Thus  began  the  second  half  of  the  great  French  war — the 
struggle  with  Bonaparte  as  opposed  to  the  struggle  against  the 
principles  of  the  Revolution.  The  two  episodes  are  one  in  so 
far  as  they  are  regarded  as  constituting  the  great  test-struggle 
between  England  and  France,  the  last  serious  effort  made  by 
a  foreign  power  to  destroy  our  commercial  and  maritime 
supremacy  by  force  of  arms.  Napoleon  in  this  respect  only 
continued  the  work  of  the  Jacobins,  and  the  short  Peace  of 
Amiens  was  a  break  so  insignificant  that  we  need  haidly  regard 
it  at  all.  Up  to  1802  the  game  had  been  a  drawn  one,  and 
the  adversaries  had  only  paused  for  a  moment  to  draw  breath 
before  resuming  their  duel. 

But  the  character  of  the  struggle  was  profoundly  modified 
by  the  fact  that  from  1803  onwards  we  were  no  longer 
fighting  against  the  principles  of  the  Revolution, 
the  contest  ^"^  against  a  military  despot  of  unparalleled 
between  genius,    who    had    fought   his   way  up   from    the 

Fr^ce  ^"  obscure  position  of  a  lieutenant  of  artillery  to 
that  of  the  arbitrator  of  Europe,  and  had  showed 
his  ability  to  direct  the  anarchic  energy  of  revolutionary 
France  to  his  own  ends.  France  under  Bonaparte  only 
resembles  France  under  Robespierre  in  the  unscrupulous 
vigour  of  her  assaults  on  her  neighbours.  After  having  long 
posed  as  the  proi)hetess  of  licentious  liberty,  she  now  becomes 
the  apostle  of  despotism ;  and  England  was  therefore  able  to 
appear  once  more  as  the  protectress  of  the  liberties  of  Europe 


BONAPARTE'S    SCHEMES.  I5 

against  a  tyrant,  abandoning  her  previous  position  as  the 
defender  of  order  against  anarchy,  which  she  had  occupied 
since  1792.  The  RepubHcans  had  talked  of  freeing  the 
masses  in  England  from  the  government  of  a  corrupt 
oligarchy  :  Bonaparte  made  no  pretence  of  any  such  philan- 
thropic aim,  and  merely  spoke  of  destroying  the  power  and 
wealth  of  Great  Britain  because  she  stood  in  his  way.  All 
through  his  career  it  is  most  notable  how  a  hatred  for  this 
country  pervades  and  explains  all  his  widespread  schemes. 
From  the  day  when,  as  a  young  artillery  officer,  he  drove 
our  garrison  out  of  Toulon,  to  the  day  when  he  saw  the 
broken  columns  of  his  Old  Guard  rolling  down  the  hillside 
of  Waterloo,  it  was  always  England  that  stood  before  him 
as  the  enemy  of  his  schemes  and  the  final  object  at  which 
his  blows  were  levelled.  His  invasion  of  Egypt  in  1798  had 
been  aimed  against  our  Indian  empire,  and  we  had  foiled 
him.  His  policy  after  the  rupture  of  the  Peace  of  Amiens 
had  always  before  it  as  its  ultimate  end  the  maritime  and 
commercial  ruin  of  England.  He  strove  to  accomplish  it 
first  by  open  invasion  and  maritime  war,  later  by  the  more 
circuitous  method  of  compelling  all  Europe  to  unite  in  the 
league  of  the  "  Continental  System  "  and  join  him  in  his  boy- 
cotting of  English  trade.  All  his  wars  with  Austria,  Prussia, 
and  Russia  were  to  a  great  extent  indirect  blows  at  the  insular 
enemy  whom  he  could  not  attack  on  her  own  soil,  for  all  the 
confederacies  against  him  were  fomented  and  consolidated 
by  the  application  of  English  gold.  To  win  the  fight  of 
Friedland  or  Wagram  meant  to  him  that  he  could  force 
another  state  into  adopting  a  commercial  policy  hostile  to 
England,  not  merely  that  he  could  seize  territory  or  impose 
vassalage  on  the  defeated  foe.  The  final  end  of  all  his  plans 
was  to  crush  Great  Britain,  and  the  other  episodes  of  the  war 
were  but  means  to  that  end,  only  necessary  because  England's 
continental  allies  must  be  subdued  before  Englamd  herself 
could  be  touched. 


l6  ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

Bonaparte  had  many  points  in  his  favour  while  conducting 
the  war  against  Great  Britain.  He  had  all  the  advantages 
that  come  from  unity  of  purpose  and  despotic  power.  The 
ministers  of  a  constitutional  state  are  clogged  with  the  re- 
sponsibility to  Parliament  and  the  nation  for  all  their  actions. 
They  have  to  face  the  criticism  of  the  opposition  and  the 
comments  of  the  press.  Moreover,  the  policy  of  a  cabinet 
of  ten  or  a  dozen  men  must  necessarily  be  less  coherent  and 
self-consistent  than  that  of  a  single  autocrat.  When  each 
side  had  formed  a  scheme,  the  ruler  of  France  could  provide 
for  its  speedy  and  silent  accomplishment ;  while  the  English 
expeditions  were  too  often  canvassed  in  parliament  and 
divulged  by  the  press  before  they  had  even  left  our  shores. 
Bonaparte  was  his  own  finance-minister  and  his  own  com- 
mander-in-chief; while  in  England  the  views  of  the  economist 
and  the  soldier  were  too  often  clashing  in  the  cabinet,  with 
the  result  that  the  one  spent  more  than  he  intended,  though 
the  other  was  always  being  checked  by  insufficient  supplies. 
Several  times,  as  we  shall  see,  Wellington  was  nearly  starved 
out  in  Spain,  while  the  ministry  were  positive  that  they  were 
spending  too  much  rather  than  too  little  on  his  army.  Nothing 
of  the  sort  could  happen  in  France,  where  the  same  hand  held 
the  sword  and  the  purse-:>trings.  Bonaparte,  too,  in  his  deal- 
ings with  his  allies,  could  p^css  his  demands  as  a  master; 
England  had  great  difficulty  in  getting  even  part  of  her 
requirements  carried  out  by  confederates  who  knew  that  they 
were  serving  her  as  well  as  themselves,  and  could  therefore 
get  what  terms  they  liked  out  of  her. 

The  great  war  of  1 803-1814  falls  into  two  main  parts. 
During  the  first,  Bonaparte  aimed  at  fighting  England  on  the 
seas,  and  his  fundamental  project  was  the  actual  invasion  of 
our  shores.  This  period  lasted  for  somewhat  over  two  years, 
and  ended  in  1805,  when  we  stirred  up  against  him  enemies 
who  kept  his  army  occupied  in  Central  Europe,  and  destroyed 
his  fleet  at  Trafalgar.     During  the  second  and  longer  section 


BONAPARTE  AT  BOULOGNE.  17 

of  the  struggle,  Bonaparte  abandoned  his  invasion  scheme, 
frankly  ceased  to  dispute  the  mastery  of  the  seas,  and  strove 
to  wear  down  England  by  cutting  off  the  sources  of  her 
commercial  prosperity  by  his  "  Continental  System,"  a  scheme 
hopeless  from  the  first,  and  entailing  on  him  in  the  end  the 
desperate  hatred,  not  only  of  the  governments,  but  of  the 
peoples  of  every  European  state.  He  finally  fell  because  he 
had  taught  every  patriot  in  every  land  to  look  upon  him  as 
a  bitter  and  irreconcilable  personal  enemy. 

At  the  first  outbreak  of  the  new  war  in  1803,  it  would  be 
hard  to  say  which  of  the  two  belligerents  displayed  the 
greater  energy.  Bonaparte  marched  120,000 
veteran  troops  to  the  coast  of  the  Channel,  and  Boulo^n?  ^ 
set  every  dockyard  in  France  and  Holland  to 
work,  in  order  to  build  men-of-war  to  equal  the  English  fleet 
in  numbers.  He  also  constructed  vast  numbers  of  large  flat- 
bottomed  boats,  in  which  he  intended  to  convey  his  army 
across  the  straits  under  cover  of  his  war  fleet.  His  own 
headquarters  were  placed  at  Boulogne;  to  right  and  left  his 
regiments  lay  at  every  port  between  Ostend  and  St.  Valery. 
He  was  thoroughly  set  upon  trying  that  invasion  of  our  island 
which  the  Directory  had  abandoned  as  impracticable  after 
the  defeats  of  Camperdown  and  St.  Vincent.  A  fog,  he 
thought,  might  cover  his  crossing,  or  a  gale  might  drive  away 
the  British  squadron  which  observed  him,  or  a  lucky  concen- 
tration of  his  own  ships  might  for  a  moment  give  him  the 
command  of  the  Channel.  But  in  some  way  or  another  he 
was  determined  that  the  attempt  should  be  made.  His  troops 
were  trained  to  get  on  board  their  flat-bottomed  boats  with 
extraordinary  speed  and  order,  and  he  boasted  that  the  whole 
army  could  embark  in  France  and  disembark  in  England 
within  forty-eight  hours — a  feat  wholly  impossible. 

On  this  side  of  the  Channel  the  outbreak  of  war  had  roused 
wild  anger  against  Bonaparte  for  cheating  us  out  of  the  long- 
desired  peace  from  which  so  much  had  been  expected.     With 

C 


i8  ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

anger  was  mixed  a  strong  feeling  of  apprehension  when   the 

^  ,.  .  magnitude  of  the  preparations  at  Boulogne  be- 
Feehng:  in  '^  t^i  •.  .  r  . 

England—       came    known.      Ihe  excitement  was    far   greater 

The  volun-  than  that  which  had  been  felt  during  the  critical 
te&rs> 

year  1798.     While   the    ministers  were    planning 

how  best  the  military  forces  of  the  United   Kingdom  could 

be  drawn  out  to  meet  the  projected  attack,  the  nation  itself 

came  to  their  aid    by  forming   many   hundreds   of  volunteer 

corps.     In  a  few  months  347,000  volunteers  were  under  arms, 

besides  120,000  regulars  and  78,000  militia.     The  new  levies 

were  very   raw,    and   insufficiently  supplied  with  cavalry  and 

artillery.     But  their  numbers  were  so  great  and  their  enthusiasm 

so  genuine,  that,  with  the  regulars  to  stiffen  their  resistance,  it 

cannot  be  doubted  that  they  would  have  given  a  good  account 

of  Bonaparte,  if  ever  he  had  succeeded  in  throwing  the  whole 

of  his  150,000  men  ashore  in  Kent  and  Sussex. 

The  spirit  of  the  nation  was  displayed  with  equal  clearness 

by  the  demand  made  for  the  return  of  Pitt  to  the  helm  of  the 

state.     Addington,  whose  efforts  to  organize  the 

J'^^^i^^"^"®  national  defence  were  considered  too  slow  and 
to  omce. 

ineffective,  retired  from  office  in  the  spring  of 
1804,  and  Pitt's  advent  to  power  was  signalized  by  an  outburst 
of  redoubled  energy  and  an  unsparing  expenditure  of  public 
money.  Every  month  that  Bonaparte  waited  before  dealing  his 
threatened  blow  made  the  project  of  invasion  more  chimerical. 
The  longer  the  First  Consul  studied  the  problem  of  trans- 
porting his  host  across  the  straits  on  his  light  craft,  the  more 

difficult  it  began  to  appear.     Finally,  after  many 
Modification  .  .  •   u-         ^^i  1  r  ^ 

of  Bona-  months   spent  m  weighing    the    chances  for  and 

parte's  in-  against  the  possibility  of  invading  England  before 
vasion  P^  '  Yic  had  secured  control  of  the  Channel,  Bona- 
parte seems  to  have  come  to  the  very  wise  and  prudent 
conclusion  that  it  was  too  hazardous  an  undertaking.  Instead 
of  placing  his  army  on  board  of  his  transports  and  flat-bottomed 
boats  and  launching  them  on  to  the  narrow  seas,  he  resolved 


NAPOLEON  PROCLAIMED  EMPEROR.        19 

to  bring  up  his  war  fleet  to  convey  them  across.     But  to  collect 

his  line-of-battle  ships  from  the  scattered  ports  where  they  were 

being  blockaded  by  the  English  squadrons  was  in  itself  a  very 

hazardous  and  difficult  task.     He   deferred  the  operation  till 

1804,  and  meanwhile  took  in  hand  a  piece  of  domestic  policy 

whose  conclusion  the  rupture   of  the  Treaty  of  Amiens  had 

interrupted. 

He  thought  the  time  was  ripe  for  the  open  restoration  of 

monarchy  in   France.      A  royalist  conspiracy  against  his  life 

being  detected,  he  took  the  opportunity  which  it  _ 

.  Bona.p3.rt6 

gave  him  to  demand  a  higher  and  firmer  position  assumes  the 

in  the  state  than  that  of  First  Consul.  Acting  on  title  of 
his  secret  orders,  the  French  senate  requested  him 
to  assume  the  title  of  Emperor — the  monarch  of  so  large  a 
realm  and  the  controller  of  so  many  vassal  states  was  too  great 
(he  thought)  to  be  a  mere  king.  Bonaparte  at  once  accepted 
the  offer,  which  seemed  to  fall  in  with  the  aspirations  of  the 
whole  nation.  Jacobinism  was  wholly  dead,  and  there  was  a 
real  and  widespread  enthusiasm  for  the  ruler  who  had  not 
merely  smitten  the  foreign  enemies  of  France,  but  had  restored 
order  within  her  boundaries,  reorganized  her  finances,  and 
brought  back  to  the  ruined  country  a  considerable  measure  of 
internal  prosperity  (May  18,  1804),  Bonaparte  compelled  the 
Pope  to  come  to  Paris  to  assist  in  his  coronation  :  it  was  a 
grand  if  somewhat  garish  pageant,  which  went  to  the  hearts  of 
the  few  surviving  members  of  the  old  republican  party,  and 
marked  the  complete  ascendency  of  despotism  in  France.  At 
its  culminating  point,  Bonaparte,  taking  the  crown  out  of  the 
hands  of  Pius  VH.,  who  had  been  intending  to  place  it  on 
his  head,  crowned  himself  instead,  and  then  placed  another 
diadem  on  the  brow  of  his  wife,  Josephine  Beauharnais.  For 
the  future  law  ran  in  France  in  the  name  of  the  "  Emperor 
Napoleon,"  though  the  state  was  officially  spoken  of  as  a 
republic  for  two  or  three  years  more,  in  spite  of  its  new  mon- 
archical form  (December  2,  1804). 


20  ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

In  the  autumn  of  1804,  Napoleon  began  to  take  in  hand 
his  new  scheme  for  concentrating  a  naval  force  in  the  Channel 
Eng-land  ^°  cover  the  passage  of  his  army.     He  hoped  to 

declares  war  unite  at  Boulogne  all  the  scattered  French 
with  Spain,  squadrons,  and  to  join  to  them  the  navies  of 
Holland  and  Spain.  The  latter  power  had  just  been  forced  by 
him,  much  against  her  will,  to  join  the  coalition.  Charles  IV., 
being  summoned  to  supply  the  emperor  with  either  ships  or 
money,  undertook  to  pay  France  an  enormous  subsidy,  trusting 
thereby  to  escape  an  open  breach  with  England.  But  the 
Addington  cabinet  got  early  news  of  the  treaty,  and  promptly 
seized  the  frigates  which  were  bringing  the  treasure  from  America 
(October  5),  whereupon  Spain  a  few  months  later  declared  war 
on  England  (December  12),  and  openly  joined  Napoleon. 

This  event  immensely  enlarged  the  area  of  naval  war : 
English  fleets  had  now  to  watch  every  port  of  Western  Europe, 
The  block-  ^^^^  the  Texel  in  the  North  Sea  to  Genoa  in  the 
ade  of  the        Mediterranean,  lest  some  detachment  of  the  enemy 

16  66  s.  i^jgi^^-  escape,  and,  by  relieving  other  blockaded 
squadrons,  concentrate  for  the  moment  a  force  which  should 
outnumber  our  ships  on  the  all-import2.nt  belt  of  sea  between 
Boulogne  and  the  Kentish  coast.  Everything  then  depended 
on  the  untiring  vigilance  of  our  admirals,  who  had  to  keep  up 
an  endless  watch  on  the  hostile  ports,  and  whose  weather-beaten 
ships  could  never  retire  for  a  moment  from  the  wearisome 
blockade. 

Napoleon  at  last  thought   out  an   elaborate  and  ingenious 

scheme   for   drawing   together    his    scattered    naval    strength. 

•T  ,  ,  The  initiative  was  to  lie  with  Villeneuve,  the 
Napoleon  s  ' 

naval  admiral  commanding  at  Toulon,  whose  squadron 

scheme.  ^^,^g  being  watched  by  a  somewhat  smaller  English 

fleet  under  the  ever-watchful  Nelson.  He  was  to  slip  out  of 
his  port  at  the  first  opportunity,  and,  evading  Nelson,  to  make 
for  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar.  Picking  up  the  Spanish  ships  at 
Cartagena  and  Cadiz,  where   the   English   blockading  vessels 


VILLENEUVE   AND   NELSON.  SI 

ivere  very  few,  he  was  then  to  strike  out  westward  into  the 
Atlantic,  as  if  intending  to  deal  a  blow  at  the  English  West 
Indies.  Nelson,  the  emperor  rightly  thought,  would  follow 
them  in  that  direction.  But  after  reaching  the  Caribbean  Sea, 
the  Franco-Spaniards  were  to  turn  suddenly  back  and  make 
a  dash  for  Brest,  where  lay  a  large  French  squadron,  watched 
by  Admiral  Cornvvallis  and  the  English  Channel  fleet.  If  all 
went  well,  Villeneuve  could  raise  the  blockade  of  Brest,  for, 
counting  the  ships  in  that  port,  he  would  have  some  sixty 
vessels  to  Cornwallis's  thirty-five.  Nelson  meanwhile  would 
be  vainly  searching  the  West  Indian  waters  for  the  enemy  who 
had  reached  the  Channel.  Cornwallis  must  retire  or  be 
crushed,  and  the  command  of  the  narrow  seas  must  pass  for 
some  weeks  into  French  hands.  The  invasion  could  then  be 
accomplished. 

Much  of  this  scheme  of  the  emperor's  was  actually  carried 
out.  On  March  29,  1805,  Villeneuve  ran  out  of  Toulon  in 
a  heavy  gale,  which  had  blown  Nelson  far  to  villeneu  e 
the  south.  He  made  for  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar,  escapes  10 the 
while  the  English  admiral  was  vainly  looking  for  ^^^^  Indies, 
him  off  Sicily,  under  the  impression  that  he  had  sailed  for 
Egypt.  Fortunately  for  us,  the  Spanish  fleet  was  in  such  a 
disgraceful  state  of  disrepair  and  disorder,  that  no  ships  from 
Cartagena  and  only  six  from  Cadiz  joined  the  enemy,  and 
Villeneuve  had  to  start  on  his  dash  across  the  Atlantic  with 
only  eighteen  vessels  instead  of  the  thirty  on  which  he  had 
counted  (April  9,  1805).  On  the  13th  of  May  they  reached 
Martinique.  After  staying  some  weeks  in  the  West  Indies, 
that  the  knowledge  of  his  arrival  there  might  get  abroad  and 
mislead  Nelson,  the  French  admiral  started  homeward  on  the 
4th  of  June.  His  great  opponent  meanwhile  had  only  received 
full  information  as  to  the  route  taken  by  the  French  as  late  as 
May  9,  and  started  for  the  West  just  a  month  later  than  the 
French,  and  with  only  eleven  line-of-battle  ships.  He  reached 
Barbados  on  the  very  day  that  Villeneuve  turned  back  towards 


22  ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

Europe,  vainly  sought  him  among  the  islands  for  a  few  days, 
and  then,  acting  on  his  own  unerring  inspiration,  turned  back- 
ward and  made  sail  for  Europe.  He  was  now  only  nine  days 
behind  the  French,  though  he  had  started  with  a  full  month 
to  the  bad. 

Meanwhile    all    Napoleon's    elaborate    plans    for    bringing 

Villeneuve   to    Brest,  long  ere  his  departure   from  the  West 

transpired,  were  wrecked  by  the  chances  of  war 

action  off         ^^^    ^^^  activity   of  the   English  Admiralty.     A 

Cape  Finis-  fast-sailing  English  brig  sighted  the  allied  fleet 
terrs. 

moving    eastward    soon   after   it   left    the   West 

Indies.  Making  an  extraordinarily  swift  passage,  this  little 
vessel  brought  the  news  to  Portsmouth  on  the  7th  of  July. 
Realizing  its  tremendous  importance,  Lord  Barham,  the  First 
Lord  of  the  Admiralty,  gave  prompt  orders  that  a  squadron 
should  be  sent  out  into  the  Atlantic  to  intercept  Villeneuve. 
This  was  done  with  such  splendid  speed  that  on  July  23 
fifteen  vessels  under  Sir  Robert  Calder  met  the  approaching 
enemy  just  as  he  arrived  in  sight  of  Europe,  off  the  Spanish 
cape  Finisterre.  After  an  indecisive  action,  in  which  they 
lost  two  ships,  the  allies  ran  into  Ferrol  instead  of  sailing  for 
Brest :  Calder's  appearance  had  checkmated  them. 

Nelson,  too,  was  now  back  in  European  waters ;  on  July  20, 
three  days  before  Calder's  action,  he  reached  Gibraltar.  All 
the  British  squadrons  being  now  within  touch  of 
Nelson—  ^^^^  other,  Bonaparte's  scheme  had  practically 
Villeneuve  failed.  But  Villeneuve  made  its  failure  more 
Cadiz.  disastrous  than  it  need  have  been.     Having  pro- 

cured reinforcements  at  Ferrol,  he  then  moved 
to  Cadiz  to  pick  up  the  remainder  of  the  Spanish  fleet.  After 
joining  them,  he  had  thirty-three  ships  of  the  line  ;  but  outside 
Cadiz  lay  Nelson  with  his  own  and  Calder's  squadrons,  twenty- 
seven  vessels  in  all.  Villeneuve  refused  to  put  out,  rightly 
thinking  that  his  superiority  in  numbers  did  not  compensate 
for  the  inferior  quality  of  his  crews.     But  nevertheless  he  had 


! 


BATTLE   OF    TRAFALGAR.  23 

to  fight.  His  master  the  emperor  had  heard  with  disgust  and 
wild  anger  that  the  fleet  which  was  to  give  him  the  command 
of  the  Channel  had  appeared  at  Ferrol  instead  of  at  Brest, 
and  had  allowed  itself  to  be  turned  from  its  goal  by  Calder's 
less  numerous  squadron.  In  his  vexation  Napoleon  sent  his 
admiral  a  letter  taunting  him  with  cowardice  and  bad  seaman- 
ship, and  informing  him  that  a  successor  had  been  sent  to 
supersede  him. 

To  vindicate  his  courage,  the  unfortunate  Villeneuve  deter- 
mined to  offer  battle  to  Nelson  before  he  was  displaced  from 
command.  The  fleets  met  off  Cape  Trafalgar, 
on  October  21,  1805,  with  the  result  that  might  J-fraSg-ar 
have  been  expected.  Nelson's  vessels  in  two 
columns  burst  into  the  midst  of  the  ill-formed  Franco-Spanish 
line,  and  silenced  or  captured  ship  after  ship  by  their  splendid 
gunnery.  The  allied  rear  and  centre  were  annihilated  before 
their  van  could  tack  and  come  into  action.  Nineteen  of 
Villeneuve's  ships,  including  his  own,  were  taken,  and  one 
blew  up ;  only  a  remnant  escaped  into  Cadiz.  But  Nelson 
was  mortally  wounded  by  a  musket-ball  in  the  thick  of  the 
fight.  He  lived  long  enough  to  hear  that  the  victory  was 
complete,  but  expired  ere  night.  His  work  was  done,  for 
Napoleon  never  again  dared  to  send  a  large  fleet  to  sea  or 
to  risk  a  general  engagement.  Had  Nelson's  indomitable  soul 
sustained  his  frail  body  for  a  few  more  years,  there  would 
have  been  little  but  weary  blockading  work  for  him  to  do. 
He  had  effectually  put  an  end  to  all  Napoleon's  invasion 
schemes,  by  destroying  more  than  half  the  French  and  Spanish 
ships  which  were  to  have  swept  the  Channel  and  laid  open  the 
shores  of  Kent. 

The  turning-point  of  the  great  naval  campaign  of  1805  had 
been  Calder's  indecisive  action  off  Cape  Finisterre.  The 
moment  it  had  been  fought  and  Villeneuve  had  turned  south- 
ward. Napoleon  had  mentally  given  up  his  idea  of  crossing 
the  Dover  Straits,  and   turned   his   attention   to   Continental 


24  ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

affairs.      It   was    high   time,    for   Pitt   had    been   stirring   up 

against  him  a  formidable  coahtion.  The  old 
new  coalition  monarchies  of  Europe  had  been  greatly  displeased 
against  by  Napoleon's  annexations  in  Italy  and  elsewhere. 

Francis  II.  of  Austria  bitterly  resented  his  constant 
intrigues  with  the  minor  German  states,  and  as  emperor  had  a 
special  grievance  against  him.  For  in  1804  Bonaparte  had 
violated  the  territory  of  the  empire  in  the  most  outrageous  way. 
He  had  sent  a  regiment  of  horse  across  the  Rhine  and  kid- 
napped at  night  a  Bourbon  prince,  the  Duke  of  Enghien,  whom 
he  then  tried  and  shot  on  a  false  accusation  of  being  concerned 
in  an  assassination  plot.  Such  a  violation  of  international  law 
and  common  morality  had  provoked  open  protest  from  Austria 
and  Russia.  These  two  powers  were  already  negotiating  for  an 
alliance  against  France,  when  Pitt  stepped  in  to  offer  them 
enormous  subsidies  and  the  active  aid  of  the  English  fleet. 
It  was  hoped  that  Prussia  too  would  join  the  coalition ;  but 
the  ministers  of  Frederick  William  III.  pursued  a  mean  and 
double-faced  policy,  haggling  with  France  and  Austria  at 
once,  and  offering  themselves  to  the  highest  bidder,,  They 
finally  helped  neither  side,  but  pounced  on  the  electorate  of 
Hanover,  with  Napoleon's  consent,  and  preserved  an  ambiguous 
neutrality. 

The  French  autocrat  was  not  unaware  of  the  Austro-Russian 
alliance.     When  he  heard  of  Villeneuve's  failure,  he  dropped 

for  ever  his  cherished  invasion  scheme,  and,  sud- 
Austerlitz—  denly  turning  his  back  on  the  sea,  declared  war  on 
Austria  sues    his  Continental  enemies  before  they  were  ready 

for  him.  The  troops  from  the  camp  of  Boulogne 
were  hurried  across  France  by  forced  marches,  and  hurled  into 
Germany,  long  before  the  Russians  were  anywhere  near  the 
field  of  operations.  The  Austrians  alone  had  to  bear  the  first 
brunt  of  the  war ;  their  imbecile  commander.  Mack,  allowed 
them  to  be  surprised  before  they  were  concentrated,  and  was 
himself  captured  at  Ulm  with  nearly  40,000  men  before  the 


AUSTERLTTZ   AND   ITS   CONSEQUENCES.  25 

war  was  many  days  old  (October  20).     This  disaster  left  the 

Austrians    so    weak  that    they    could   not   even    save   Vienna 

from  the  invader ;  the  wrecks  of  their  army  had  to  fall  back 

and  join  the   Russians,   who  were   only  now  coming  on  the 

scene.     A  month  later  (December  2,  1805)  the  French  and  the 

allies  met  in  a  decisive  battle  at  Austerlitz,  a  Moravian  village 

eighty  miles  north  of  Vienna.     Here  the  unskilful  generalship 

of  the  allies  exposed  them  to  a  bloody  defeat,  which  cost  them 

more  than  30,000  men.     The  Austrians  now  cried  aloud  for 

peace,  which  Napoleon  only  granted  on  very  hard  terms.     He 

took  away  Venice  and  the  other  Austrian  lands  south  of  the 

Alps,  and  united  them  to  Lombardy,  so  forming  a  "  Kingdom 

of  Italy,"  of  which  he  wore  the  crown.     The  Tyrol  was  given 

to  Bavaria,  whose  ruler  had  sided  with  Napoleon. 

Moreover,  Francis  H.  was  forced  to  give  up  the  time-honoured 

title  of  "  Holy  Roman  Emperor  "  which  his  ancestors  had  held 

since    14  ^^8,    and    with    it    his   place  as    nominal         ,    , 

•        r    ,  1         ^  ^T  r  End  of  the 

suzeram  of  the  other   German  states.      Most  01  <<  Holy 

the  minor    princes    between  the   Rhine  and  the  Roman  ^^ 

Elbe  were  forced  to  replace  their  nominal  depen-  xhe  Confede- 

dence  on  the  Habsburg  emperor  by  a  very  real  ?!5ji°"  °^  ^^^ 

servitude  to  Bonaparte.      He  formed  them  into 

the  "  Confederation  of  the  Rhine  "  under  his  own  presidency, 

and  compelled  them  to  place  their  armies  and  treasures  at  his 

disposal  (July  to  December,  r8o6). 

The  news  of  the  defeat  of  Austerlitz  is  often  said  to  have 

been  the  death-blow  of  Pitt.     This  statement  is  only  true  in  a 

geneial  way,  and  the  theatrical  last  words  which 

are  put  into  his   mouth,   "  Roll  up  the   map  of  pj^.^.^ 

Europe;  we  shall   not  want  it  again  for  twenty 

years,"  are  not  authentic.     But  there  is  no  doubt  that  he  was 

bitterly  disappointed  at  the  failure  of  the  great  coalition  which 

he  had  raised  against  Napoleon.     His  death  was  really  due  to 

the  long  strain  of  anxiety  during  the  projected  invasion  of 

England,  and  to  his  carelessness  about  his  health,  of  which  he 


26  ENGLAND   IN   THE   NLNE'lEENTH   CENTURY. 

was  as  reckless  as  he  was  about  his  private  fortune.  He  died, 
a  broken  man,  though  aged  no  more  than  forty-six,  on  January 
23,  1806.  But  his  poUcy  Hved  after  him,  and  his  successors 
were  to  carry  it  out  to  a  successful  end,  though  only  after  eight 
more  years  of  desperate  war. 


C    M7    ) 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE   STRUGGLE   WITH    BONAPARTE  :    (2)    THE    CONTINENTAL 
SYSTEM THE    PENINSULAR    WAR — WATERLOO. 

1806-1815. 

With  the  battles  of  Trafalgar  and  Austerlitz,  followed  by  the 

death  of  Pitt,   the  first  stage  in  the  great  struggle  with  the 

French  emperor  came  to  an  end.     There  was  no  ts,t      ,      , 
^  Napoleon  s 

further  talk  of  the  invasion  of  England,  nor  did  second  line 
Bonaparte  attempt  any  more  to  dispute  the  o^po^icy. 
dominion  of  the  seas.  But  his  mind  was  none  the  less  set  on 
the  humiliation  of  England,  though  his  methods  of  assailing 
her  became  more  indirect.  He  had  now  in  his  eye  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  domination  over  the  whole  of  Europe.  The  first 
step  towards  the  systematic  reduction  of  his  neighbours  to 
subjection  was  the  establishment  of  the  "  Confederation  of  the 
Rhine,"  whose  members  were  from  the  first  his  slaves.  The 
second  was  the  planting  out  of  his  relatives  as  rulers  of  the 
smaller  states  of  Europe.  In  1806  his  brother  Joseph  was 
made  King  of  Naples,  from  which  the  imbecile  Bourbon  house 
were  driven  out,  because  they  had  dared  to  show  sympathy  with 
Austria  during  the  war  of  1805.  A  few  months  later  came  the 
crowning  of  his  brother  Lewis  as  King  of  Holland — the  Bata- 
vian  republic  being  ruthlessly  swept  away,  without  any  option 
being  given  to  the  Dutch  of  declaring  their  wishes  as  to  the 
government  of  their  land.  Bonaparte  began  to  talk  of  himself 
as  the  "  successor  of  Charlemagne,"  an  ominous  saying  for 


28  ENGLAND   IN   THE    NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

Germans  and  Spaniards,  since  the  great  Frankish  emperor's 
dominions  had  extended  as  far  as  the  Elbe  and  the  Ebro. 

Meanwhile    Pitt   had   found    no    competent    successor    in 
England.     No  statesman  commanded  sufficient  authority  with 

the  people  or  the  Parliament  to  take  his  place, 
ministry  The  result  that  followed  was  a  coalition  ministry. 

formed  in  The  Whig  party,  excluded  from  office  for  more 
*  than  twenty  years,  were  invited  to  take  their  share 
in  the  governance  of  the  realm.  Charles  James  Fox  and 
Sheridan  took  office,  allied  to  Lord  Grenville,  long  a  faithful 
supporter  of  Pitt,  and  to  many  other  Tories,  among  whom 
Addington  was  numbered. 

Even  the  way  in  which  Bonaparte  had  broken  the  peace  of 
Amiens  had  not  wholly  cured  Fox  of  his  idea  that  peace  with 

France  was  possible.    The  invasion  scheme  being 

Futile  nego-  foiled,  he  thought  that  the  emperor  might  be  willing 
tiations  with  j-      i       .u      r-  n 

Napoleon.        to  come  to  terms.     Accordmgly,   the    GrenviUe- 

Fox  cabinet  entered  into  negotiations  with  the 
enemy  in  1806.  Napoleon  at  first  used  smooth  words,  but 
the  conditions  on  which  he  offered  peace  were  humiiliating, 
considering  that  England  had  hitherto  not  only  held  her 
own,  but  had  sw^ept  the  French  fleet  from  the  seas  and 
occupied  a  great  number  of  French  colonies.  To  his  great 
regret,  Fox  was  compelled  to  acknowledge  that  an  honourable 

and  reasonable  peace  was  not  procurable.  Soon 
Pox—  ^^ter   he  died   (September,    1806),    surviving   his 

Break-up  of  great  rival  Pitt  by  less  than  a  year.  The  coalition 
—The  Tories  ministry  survived  him  a  few  months,  but  resigned 
return  to  in  March,  1807.     The  two  elements  in  it  were  at 

variance,  and  the  Whigs  made  the  refusal  of 
George  III.  to  allow  them  to  introduce  Catholic  Emancipation 
their  excuse  for  leaving  office.  A  cabinet  of  pure  Tories 
succeeded  them,  in  which  the  leading  spirit  was  Spencer 
Perceval,  though  the  premiership  was  nominally  held  by  the 
aged  Duke  of  Portland. 


NAPOLEON   CONQUERS   PRUSSIA.  29 

Not  many  months  after  the  Austrians  had  yielded  to  their 
conqueror,  and  the  Russians  had  retired  sullenly  towards  the 
east,  the  third  great  Continental  power  was 
destined  to  feel  the  weight  of  Napoleon's  sword,  ^oade^d  into 
The  weak  and  selfish  ministers  of  Prussia  had  declaring 
stood  out  from  the  coalition  of  1805,  and  had  sold  prance, 
themselves  to  Napoleon  for  the  price  of  the 
annexation  of  Hanover — the  patrimony  of  the  old  King  of 
England.  But  no  sooner  was  Austerlitz  won  and  the  allies 
crushed,  than  Napoleon  began  a  series  of  systematic  slights  and 
insults  to  Prussia.  He  considered  that,  by  making  her  bargain 
with  him,  she  had  sold  herself  to  be  as  much  his  vassal  as  were 
Holland  or  Bavaria  The  numerous  insults  which  he  inflicted 
on  his  ally  Frederick  William  HI.  culminated  in  an  extra- 
ordinary piece  of  bad  faith.  He  had  covenanted  in  1805  that 
Prussia  should  keep  Hanover  :  but,  negotiating  with  England  in 
1806,  he  calmly  proposed  to  the  English  ministers  to  take  back 
that  electorate  and  restore  it  to  George  HI.  as  one  of  the  terms 
of  peace.  This  came  to  the  ears  of  the  Prussian  court,  and 
led  to  such  an  explosion  of  wrath  that  with  great  haste  and 
hurry  Frederick  William  declared  war  on  France,  without 
giving  himself  time  to  prepare  his  army  or  to  purvey  himself 
allies.  He  hastily  tried  to  conciliate  England,  whose  king  he 
had  robbed  of  Hanover,  and  to  patch  up  an  alliance  with 
Alexander  of  Russia,  who  was  still  eager  to  fight,  to  reverse 
the  verdict  of  Austerlitz.  Both  England  and  Russia  came  to 
terms  with  the  Prussians,  but  not  in  time  to  give  her  practical 
assistance  during  the  opening  days  of  the  war. 

Advancing  beyond  the  Elbe  in  order  to  overrun  the  lands  of 
the  princes  of  the  "  Confederacy  of  the  Rhine,"  the  Prussians 
found  themselves  suddenly  assailed  on  the  flank  g^^,  j  ^    . 
by  the  French  army,  which  Bonaparte  had  secretly  Jena  and 
concentrated    under    cover    of    the    Thuringian  "^"^''stadt. 
Forest.      The    Prussian  troops    had    hitherto  enjoyed  a  very 
high  reputation,  won  in  the  splendid  victories  of  Frederick  the 


30  ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

Great.  But  the  accurate  drill  and  stern  discipline  which  they 
inherited  from  him,  and  their  undoubted  courage  in  the  field, 
did  not  save  them  from  a  fearful  disaster.  Guided  by  aged 
and  incompetent  generals,  who  had  not  studied  Bonaparte's 
methods  of  attack,  they  were  caught  before  they  could 
concentrate,  and  defeated  piecemeal  at  the  battles  of  Jena  and 
Auerstadt  (October  14,  1806).  When  Napoleon  had  once  got 
them  on  the  run,  he  pursued  them  so  fiercely  that  division  after 
division  was  outmarched,  surrounded,  and  compelled  to  lay 
down  its  arms.  The  king  escaped  with  only  12,000  men,  the 
wreck  of  a  host  of  150,000  veterans,  to  join  his  Russian  ally. 
Of  all  the  disasters  which  befel  the  powers  of  the  Continent 
when  they  measured  themselves  on  the  field  of  battle  against 
Bonaparte,  this  was  the  most  sudden  and  humiliating.  Only 
a  few  weeks  after  the  declaration  of  war  the  Prussian  monarchy 
was  ruined. 

After  entering  Berlin  in  triumph,  the  victor  pressed  on  to 
the  east  to  meet  the  Russians.     His  campaign  against  them 

was  far  more  difficult  and  sharply  contested.  In 
Eylau  and  the  first  pitched  battle,  fought  at  Eylau  in  a 
The  treaty  of  blinding  February  snowstorm,  amid  frozen  lakes 
Tilsit—  and  pine  woods,  the  emperor,  though  not  beaten, 

membS-ed?"     failed  to   drive  the  enemy  from    the    field.     He 

retired  for  a  space  into  winter  quarters ;  but  when 
the  spring  of  1807  came  round  he  pushed  forward  again,  and, 
after  much  sharp  fighting,  crushed  the  Russians  at  Friedland 
(June  14).  The  czar  then  asked  for  peace;  meeting  him  on 
a  raft  on  the  river  Niemen,  the  boundary  of  Russia  and  Prussia, 
Napoleon  concluded  with  him  the  Treaty  of  Tilsit  (July  7, 
1S07).  The  terms  of  this  peace  were  far  harder  on  Prussia, 
who  had  been  friendly  with  France  since  1795,  tlian  on  Russia, 
who  had  thrice  during  the  last  ten  years  struck  hard  at  her. 
Frederick  William  was  stripped  of  half  his  dominions,  partly 
to  help  in  making  a  new  kingdom  called  "WestphaHa"  for 
Napoleon's  brother  Jerome,  partly  to  erect  in  Poland  a  vassal 


THE   BERLIN   DECREES.  31 

state  called  the  "  Grand  Duchy  of  Warsaw,"  destined  to  act  as 
a  French  outpost  to  the  east.  A  crushing  fine  was  laid  on  the 
dismembered  monarchy,  and  French  garrisons  were  perma- 
nently established  in  its  chief  strongholds.  Russia,  on  the 
other  hand,  was  left  intact,  and  only  compelled  to  sign  an 
agreement  to  follow  Napoleon's  policy  of  attacking  England 
by  striking  at  her  trade. 

Since  Villeneuve's  incapacity  and  Nelson's  vigilance  had 
ruined  Bonaparte's  invasion  scheme,  another  set  of  designs 
against  Britain  had  been  maturing  in  the  ^j^^  Berlin 
emperor's  mind,  for  her  ruin  was  still  the  final  and  Milan 
end  of  all  his  policy,  and  the  wars  with  Conti-  screes, 
nental  powers  were  no  more  than  episodes  in  the  struggle. 
There  was  a  way  in  which  victories  like  Austerlitz  and 
Friedland  could  be  turned  to  account.  If  all  English  trade 
with  the  states  of  the  Continent  could  be  prohibited,  England 
— Napoleon  thought — must  grow^  poor  and  perish.  •  The 
enforcement  of  this  policy  begins  with  the  "  Berlin  Decrees," 
issued  soon  after  Jena,  in  the  autumn  of  1806,  and  was 
continued  by  the  Milan  Decrees  of  1807.  These  ordinances 
were  among  the  most  ingenious  devices  of  the  emperor's  fertile 
brain ;  but,  unlike  most  of  the  others,  were  decidedly  imprac- 
ticable from  the  first.  Every  one  was  familiar  with  the  idea 
of  a  naval  blockade,  wherein  the  power  supreme  at  sea  places 
ships  before  the  harbours  of  its  foe  and  prohibits  the  ingress  or 
egress  of  his  merchandise.  But  Bonaparte's  idea  was  the 
reverse  of  this :  he  would  institute  a  land  blockade — soldiers 
and  custom-house  officers  should  be  planted  all  round  the 
coasts  of  France  and  France's  vassals  and  allies,  to  prevent 
English  vessels  from  approaching  the  shore,  and  so  to  exclude 
her  manufactures  and  colonial  goods  from  the  whole  Continent. 
The  Berlin  Decrees  declared  the  British  Isles  to  be  in  a  state 
of  blockade — a  curious  inversion  of  the  actual  fact.  No 
subject  of  France  or  of  France's  vassal  states  was  to  purchase 
or  possess  any  British  merchandise.     No  vessel  of  a  neutral 


32  ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 

power — for  example,  the  United  States  of  America—  which  had 
touched  at  a  British  port  or  a  port  of  the  British  colonies,  was 
to  be  admitted  into  a  Continental  haven.  All  goods  of 
British  manufacture  were  to  be  seized,  whenever  and  in  whose- 
soever hands  they  were  found,  and  confiscated  to  the  crown. 
These  rules  were  at  once  imposed  on  Holland,  Italy,  Spain, 
and  Germany,  and  after  Tilsit  Russia  also  was  cajoled  into 
accepting  them.  In  all  P^urope,  only  Turkey,  Portugal, 
Sweden,  and  the  small  island  kingdoms  of  Sicily  and  Sardinia 
were  not  included  in  their  effect. 

The  new  Tory  government  in  England  promptly  took  up 
the  challenge.  By  the  "  Orders  in  Council"  of  1807  the  whole 
The  "Orders  ^^  ^^^  coasts  of  France  and  France's  allies  were 
in  Council "  declared  to  be  in  a  state  of  strict  blockade,  and 
^  ^  °7*  all  vessels — even  those  under  neutral  flags — which 

left  or  entered  them  were  declared  good  prizes  of  war,  tmless 
they  could  prove  that  since  leaving  home  they  had  touched  at 
a  British  port.  This  was  a  sort  of  ironical  parody  of  Bona- 
parte's Berlin  Decrees  :  obviously  if  both  parties  carried  out 
their  threats,  there  could  be  no  foreign  trade  at  all  in  conti- 
nental Europe. 

The  main  difference  between  the  two  sets  of  Decrees  was 
that  from  the  first  England  had  the  power  to  put  her  edict  in 
Eff  t  fth  ^^^^^'  while  Bonaparte's  was  a  dead  letter  not 
'•Continental  worth  the  paper  on  which  it  was  written.  He 
System.  could  not  force  his  subjects  and  allies  to  give  up 

the  countless  articles  of  luxury  and  necessity  which  they  had 
been  accustomed  to  draw  from  Britain  or  Britain's  colonies. 
From  the  first  the  proscribed  goods  contrived  to  penetrate  into 
Europe  despite  his  orders.  They  came  up  the  Danube  from 
Turkey,  they  crept  into  Spain  from  Portugal.  Smuggling 
became  scientific,  and  was  practised  on  a  gigantic  scale.  From 
Malta,  Sicily,  Gibraltar,  and  the  Channel  Islands  vessels  laden 
with  contraband  goods  sailed  every  night  to  throw  ashore  their 
wares    in   Italy  and    France.     Napoleon  never  succeeded   in 


THE   EFFECTS   OF   THE   BERLIN  DECREES.  33 

excluding  our  goods,  but  he  succeeded  in  making  the  price  of 
them  to  h^s  unfortunate  subjects  or  allies  three  or  four  times 
the  natural  amount,  for  the  smuggler's  risk  of  capture  had  to  be 
highly  remunerated.  Every  time  that  a  German  or  Spaniard 
had  to  pay  two  shillings  a  pound  for  his  sugar,  or  to  substitute 
chicory  for  his  accustomed  coffee,  he  was  reminded  that  the 
Continental  System  was  the  cause  of  his  privations,  and  asked 
himself  what  benefit  his  country  was  drawing  from  the  French 
alUance  to  compensate  him  for  his  personal  inconvenience. 

As  the  years  passed  by,  and  Napoleon's  demands  grew  more 
exorbitant,  the  nations  chafed  more  and  more  against  his 
tyranny,  till  there  followed  the  great  final  explosion  of  wrath  in 
1813.  But  in  1807  this  was  as  yet  far  off,  and  the  full  weight 
of  Bonaparte's  exactions  was  unrealized.  Meanwhile  the  suffer- 
ing brought  on  England  was  comparatively  insignificant :  we 
had  still  the  undisturbed  control  of  the  Indian,  Chinese,  African, 
and  North  American  trade  to  draw  on,  even  though  our  com- 
merce with  Europe  was  restricted.  Our  ports  and  warehouses 
were  full,  and  though  we  could  not  readily  use  some  of  our  old 
markets,  yet  the  stagnation  of  which  Napoleon  had  dreamed 
was  far  from  setting  in.  Such  were  the  effects  of  the  long- 
pondered  scheme  which  the  emperor  had  devised,  a  scheme 
which  he  carried  out  with  a  ruthless  disregard  for  the  interests 
of  his  subjects  and  allies,  and  which  was  to  draw  him  first  into 
the  costly  Spanish  war  of  1808,  and  then  into  the  disastrous 
Russian  war  of  181 2. 

One  of  the  secret  articles  of  the  Treaty  of  Tilsit  had  formu- 
lated a  plan  of  the  emperor's  for  combining  the  Russian  and 
Danish  fleets,  in  order  to  dispute  the  command  of 
the    Baltic    with   England — a  device  which  Czar  Danish  fleet 

Paul  had  tried  once  before  in    1801.     This  was  ~?^P^r 

ditions  to 
easily  foiled  by    the    second    EngUsh  attack   on   Buenos 

Copenhagen   (October,    1807).       It    was  as   com-  Ayres^and 

pletely  successful  as  Nelson's  feat  had  been  in  the 

earlier   war,  and  the   whole  Danish  fleet  was  carried  off  to 

D 


34  ENGLAND   IN  THE   NTNKTEENTH   CENTURY. 

England.  This  naval  success,  however,  hardly  compensated 
for  the  failure  of  two  other  expeditions,  from  which  much  had 
been  expected.  One  was  an  attempt  to  seize  the  vSpanish 
colony  of  Buenos  Ayres  in  South  America,  which  ended  in  the 
capitulation  of  the  incompetent  General  Whitelock  with  the 
whole  of  his  8000  men — a  force  too  small  for  the  errand  on 
which  it  was  sent.  The  other  was  a  mismanaged  expedition  to 
Egypt,  which  led  to  nothing,  and  was  finally  abandoned  with 
some  discredit.  The  English  army  was  indeed  at  this  moment 
at  the  lowest  point  of  its  reputation.  Unlike  the  navy,  it  had 
failed  in  most  of  the  tasks  on  which  it  had  been  sent :  only  in 
India  had  it  been  uniformly  successful.  It  was  not  till  our  men 
got  leaders  worthy  of  their  merits  in  VVellesley  and  Moore  that 
they  were  able  to  show  their  real  value,  and  prove  that  they 
were  more  than  equal  to  the  boasted  veterans  of  Napoleon. 
Their  chance  w^as  now  close  at  hand. 

In  1808  Bonaparte  conceived  the  iniquitous  idea  of  seizing 
the  crown  of  Spain,  and  substituting  for  its  wretched  King 
^       .  Charles    IV.    a    monarch    of  his   own    choosing. 

seizes  Charles    was    an    obedient   ally,  but    he  was    so 

Portugal.  thoroughly  incompetent  that  his  assistance  did 
not  count  for  much  :  the  emperor  imagined  that  a  nominee  of 
his  own  would  prove  a  more  profitable  helper.  But  the  way  in 
which  he  set  about  the  conquest  of  Spain  was  characteristically 
treacherous  and  tortuous.  He  drafted  a  large  army  into  the 
Peninsula  under  the  excuse  that  he  was  about  to  attack  Portu- 
gal, almost  the  last  state  in  Europe  which  had  not  yet  accepted 
the  Continental  System.  Declaring  that  "  the  House  of  Braganza 
had  ceased  to  reign,"  he  poured  his  forces  into  Portugal,  whose 
Prince-regent  fled  over  seas  to  Brazil  without  attempting  to 
offer  resistance.  But  while  one  French  army  under  General 
Junot  had  marched  on  Lisbon,  large  detachments  followed 
behind,  and  occupied,  under  the  guise  of  friends,  the  Spanish 
capital  Madrid,  and  the  fortresses  of  Barcelona,  Pampeluna, 
and  San  Sebastian. 


NAPOLEON   ATTACKS    SPAIN.  35 

The  Spaniards  suspected  no  harm  till  Napoleon  showed  his 
hand  by  a  disgraceful  piece  of  kidnapping.     King  Charles  IV. 
and  his  son,  Prince  Ferdinand,  a  worthless  and 
useless  pair,  had  been  engaged  in  a  bitter  quarrel   Bonaparte 
with   each    other.       Bonaparte    summoned   them  proclaimed 
both   to  visit   him    at    Bayonne,  just    across  the  Spam.° 
French  frontier,  in  order  that  he  might  arbitrate 
between   them  and   heal    their   quarrel.      They   were   foolish 
enough   to  obey    this    insolent    mandate :  when    they  arrived, 
however,  he  put  them  both  in  confinement,  bullied  them  into 
signing  an  abdication,  and  sent  them  prisoners  into  France. 
He  then  took  the  astounding  step  of  appointing  his  own  brother 
Joseph   Bonaparte  as  the  successor  of  Charles  IV.,  and  the 
numerous  French  troops  scattered  through  Spain  everywhere 
proclaimed  the  usurper.     The  populace  of  Madrid  rose,  but 
was  put  down  with   ruthless    severity,  and  Joseph  made  his 
appearance  in  the  capital  at  the  head  of  a  strong  guard. 

Bonaparte  had  believed  that  centuries  of  misgovernment  and 
disorganization  had  so  broken  the  spirit   of  the  Spanish  nation 
that  his  impudent  and  treacherous  scheme  could 
be  carried  to  a  successful  end.      He  was  soon  ^^^^^^  ^^^^ 
undeceived  :  the  Spaniards,  in  spite  of  the  decay  Spaniards  - 
of  their  ancient  power  and  wealth,  and  the  incom-  of^Baylen.°" 
petence  of  their  rulers,  still  possessed  a  healthy 
sense  of  national  pride  :  they  were,  moreover,  the  most  obstinate, 
fanatical,  and  revengeful  race  in  Europe.     Though  deprived  of 
their  princes,  and  confronted  with   French  garrisons  treacher- 
ously installed  in  their  fortresses,  they  sprang  to  arms  in  every 
province.     In  most  quarters  their  raw  levies  were  easily  beaten 
by   the    French  veterans,    but  a    series    of  fortunate   chances 
enabled  the  insurgents  of  the  South  to  surround  and  capture 
at  Baylen  an  army  under  General  Dupont,  which  had  forced  its 
way  into  Andalusia  (July  20,  1808).     This  was  the  first  serious 
check  which  the  French  arms  had  sustained  since  Napoleon  had 
been  proclaimed  emperor,  and  it  had  important  results.     Joseph 


36 


ENGLAND    IN    THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 


Bonaparte  and  his  troops  had  to  abandon  Madrid,  to  retire 
beyond  the  Ebro,  and  to  ask  aid  from  France. 


Cadiz 


SPAIN  &  PORTUGAL 

1803-1814. 


Typo, Etching  Co.Sc 

Meanwhile  a  second  disaster  followed  hard  on  the  heels  of 
the  battle  of  Baylen.  The  English  government  had  sent  a 
small  army  to  Portugal,  under  Sir  Arthur  Wellesley, 
an  officer  well  known  for  his  gallant  services  in 
India.  This  force  routed  at  Vimiera  (August  21, 
1808)  the  French  troops  under  Junot,  which  had 
occupied  Lisbon.  The  defeat  was  so  crushing 
that  the  enemy  might  have  been  pursued  and 
driven  into  the  sea  without  much  further  trouble.  But  Wellesley 
was  superseded  by  a  senior  officer,  Sir  Hew  Dalrymple,  who 
arrived  from  England  on  the  night  of  the  battle.  This  cautious 
general  admitted  the  French  to  terms,  and  by  his  Convention 
of  Cintra  (August  30,  1808),  Junot's  troops  were  allowed  to 
quit  Portugal  with  bag  and  baggage,  and  to  return  to  France 
by  sea. 


The  English 
in  Spain — 
Battle  of 
Vimiera — 
The  Conven- 
tion of 
Cintra. 


BATTLE   OF   CORUNNA.  37 

Two  such  checks  to  the  French  arnis  called  Bonaparte  him- 
self into  the  field.     He  hurried  over  the  Pyrenees  more  than 
200,000  of   the  veterans  who  had  conquered  at 
Austerlitz  and  Jena,  and  hurled  himself  upon  the  Spain— Sir 

Spaniards.     The  latter  were  as  inferior  in  numbers  John  Moore's 
,.     .   ,.  1      .,•  ....     ...  campaign. 

as  m  disciphne  and  military  spirit :  their  ill-organ- 
ized bands  were  scattered  in  all  directions,  and  Napoleon 
entered  Madrid  in  triumph,  and  replaced  his  brother  on  the 
throne  (December  4,  1808).  He  hoped  to  complete  the  con- 
quest of  the  Peninsula  by  crushing  the  English  army  from 
Portugal,  which  was  now  advancing  towards  him  under  Sir 
John  Moore — Dalrymple  and  Wellesley  had  been  recalled  to 
answer  before  a  court-martial  for  the  Convention  of  Cintra. 
The  emperor  moved  in  his  troops  from  all  sides  to  surround 
the  25,000  English,  but  Moore  executed  an  admirably  timed 
retreat,  and  drew  the  bulk  of  the  French  army  after  him  into 
the  inhospitable  mountains  of  Galicia. 

While    vainly    pursuing    the    English,    Bonaparte    suddenly 
received  news  which  changed  all  his  plans  :  a  new   war  was 

imminent  in  his  rear.     Austria  had  now  had  three  ^^ 

,  .  ,  -  ,,.,..  -  Napoleon 

years  in  which  to  recover  from  the  humiliation  01  leaves  Spain 

Austerlitz,   and  had   completely   reorganized   her  —Battle  of 

u   n      1  •       ,  •      \t       1       .     Corunna. 

army.     She  was  chafing  bitterly  against  Napoleon  s 

dictatorial  ways  and  the  restraints  of  the  "  Continental  System." 

Seeing  the  French  busy  in  the  Spanish  war,  she  gladly  listened 

to  the  persuasions  of  the  Perceval  cabinet,  who  offered  English 

aid  for  a  fresh  attack  on  the  old  enemy.     It  was  the  news  of  this 

danger  in  the  rear  which  forced  Bonaparte  to  quit  Spain,  taking 

with  him  his  imperial  guards,  but  leaving  the  rest  of  his  troops 

behind  him.     Marshal  Soult,  to  whom  the  pursuit  of  Moore 

was  handed  over,  followed  the  English  to  the  sea  :  at  Corunna 

the  retreating  army,  suddenly  turned  to  bay,  inflicted  a  sharp 

defeat  on  Soult,  and  embarked  in  safety  for  England  (January 

16,  1809).     Moore  fell  in  the  moment  of  victory,  after  having 

taught  his  followers  that  the  French  could  be  outmanoeuvred, 


38  ENGLAND  IN  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

outmarched,  and  beaten  in  the  open  field.  His  troops  had 
suffered  much  from  the  mountains  and  the  bitter  weather,  but 
Httle  from  the  overwhelming  force  of  pursuers. 

The  Austrian  war  of  1809  was  the  most  formidable  struggle 

in  which    Bonaparte  had  yet  engaged.      The   enemy  fought 

better,  and  were  far  better  managed  than  in  1800 

Essline:  and  ^^  ^^°5  •  ^^^^  ^^^  ^^^^  ^^^  advantage  of  the  fact 
Wagram —      that   200,000  of  the  best  troops  of  France  were 

Marriage  of     j  ^^^^  -^^    ^j^^     Peninsula.       The    Archduke 

Napoleon.  '■ 

Charles,  Austria's  great  general,  long  held  Napo- 
leon in  check,  and  even  forced  him  to  recross  the  Danube 
after  the  battle  of  Essling.  It  was  not  until  after  many  months 
of  bitter  fighting  that  the  invaders  at  last  gained  a  decisive 
battle  at  Wagram  (July  6,  1809).  The  fortune  of  war  might 
perhaps  have  been  turned  against  the  French  by  the  help  of 
England;  but  the  Perceval  cabinet  most  unwisely  wasted  a  fine 
army  by  sending  it  into  the  swamps  of  Holland  to  besiege 
Flushing,  and  make  a  vain  demonstration  on  Antwerp.  Forty 
thousand  men,  who  might  have  overrun  North  Germany,  or 
recovered  Madrid,  accomplished  nothing  more  than  the  capture 
of  Flushing,  and  suffered  so  severely  from  marsh-fever  that 
they  had  at  last  to  be  withdrawn  without  having  aided  the 
Austrians  in  the  least.  Francis  II.,  meanwhile,  was  forced  after 
Wagram  to  sign  the  peace  of  Schonbrunn,  by  which  he  gave  up 
to  Napoleon  his  whole  sea-coast  in  Dalmatia  and  Illyria,  part 
of  Poland,  and — bitterest  of  humiliations — the  hand  of  his 
daughter  Maria  Louisa  (October  14,  1809).  To  make  this 
marriage  possible,  the  French  emperor  callously  divorced 
Josephine  Beauharnais,  the  amiable  if  frivolous  spouse  who  had 
shared  his  fortunes  for  fourteen  years.  If  he  hoped  to  bind 
Austria  firmly  to  him  by  the  match,  Bonaparte  was  woefully 
deceived. 

While  the  Austrian  war  was  being  fought  out,  the  French 
made  little  progress  in  Spain.  They  were  now  being  opposed 
not  only  by  the  Spanish  levies,  but  by  a  new  English  army 


BATTLE   OF   TALAVERA.  39 

headed  by  Wellesley,  who  had  been  sent  back  to  the  Peninsula 
when  it  was  recognized  that  he  had  been  in  no 
wise   responsible   for  the  Convention  of   Cintra.  ^^-^^^^  f^.^^ 
The  year  1809  was  very  glorious  to  the  English  Portugal - 
arms:   Wellesley   first   drove  Marshal    Soult    out  yalaverl. 
of  Portugal,  surprising  him  at  Oporto,  and  forcing 
him    to    flee    northward    with    the    loss    of   all  his   guns   and 
baggage.      Then  marching  into   Spain,   he  joined    a  Spanish 
army  under  General  Cuesta,  and  defeated  at  Talavera  (July  28, 
1809)  the   French  army  which  covered  Madrid.      He  might 
even  have  won  back  the  capital  but  for  the  mulish  obstinacy 
of  his  colleague,  and  the  gross   misconduct  of   the   Spanish 
troops,  who  could  not  be  trusted  except  behind  entrenchments. 
Talavera  was  won  entirely  by  the  23,000  English,  their  allies 
refusing  to  advance  even  when  the  battle  was  won.     After  this 
heart-breaking   experience   Wellesley    resolved   never    to    co- 
operate with  a  Spanish  army  again,  and  to  trust  entirely  to  his 
own  troops. 

Meanwhile  the  news  of  Talavera  caused  the  French  troops 
from  all  parts  of  the  Peninsula  to  concentrate  against  the  little 
English  army,  which  had  to  beat  a  cautious  retreat  to  the 
Portuguese  frontier.  No  result  had  been  gained  from  the 
incursion  into  Spain,  save  that  the  troops  had  learnt  to  look 
with  confidence  on  their  leader,  who  received  as  his  reward  for 
his  two  victories  the  title  of  WelUngton,  under  which  he  was  to 
be  so  well  known. 

After  the  peace  of  Schonbrunn  had  been  signed,  Bonaparte 
commenced  to  pour  reinforcements  into  Spain,  and  even  spoke 
of  going  there  himself  "  to  drive  the  British  leopard 
into  the  sea."    Ultimately,  however,  he  sent  instead  q£  Torres 
his  ablest  lieutenant,  Marshal  Massena,  with  100,000  Vedras  "— 
fresh  troops.    The  arrival  of  these  new  legions  gave  retreat, 
fresh  vigour  to  the  invaders  :  they  overran  most 
of  Southern  and  Eastern  Spain,  and  only  failed  when  they  were 
confronted  in  Portugal  by  the  indomitable  army  of  Wellington. 


40  ENGLAND   IN  THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 

The  year  1810  was  for  the  EngUsh  commander  the  most  trying 
period  of  the  whole  war.  Massena  marched  against  him  in 
overpowering  strength,  and  all  that  was  in  his  power  was  to 
play  a  slow  and  obstinate  game  of  retreat,  turning  back  on 
occasion,  as  at  the  very  skilfully  fought  battle  of  Busaco  (Sep- 
tember 27),  to  check  the  heads  of  the  French  columns.  In 
this  way  he  led  the  enemy  on  to  the  gates  of  Lisbon,  in  front  of 
which  he  had  erected  a  very  elaborate  system  of  fortifications, 
the  celebrated  "  Lines  of  Torres  Vedras,"  extending  in  a  triple 
range  all  across  the  peninsula  on  which  the  Portuguese  capital 
stands.  Masse'na  knew  nothing  of  the  lines  till  his  army  was 
brought  up  by  running  into  the  first  of  them  (October,  1810). 
He  found  them  so  strong  that  he  dared  not  risk  an  attack  on 
them,  and  halted  irresolute  in  their  front.  Wellington  had 
expected  this,  and  had  prepared  for  the  contingency  by  sweep- 
ing the  whole  countryside  bare  of  provisions,  and  causing  the 
peasantry  to  retire  into  Lisbon.  Massena's  host  starved  in 
front  of  the  lines  for  five  months,  vainly  hoping  for  aid  from 
Spain.  But  Wellington  had  cut  tlieir  line  of  communication 
with  Madrid  by  throwing  numerous  bands  of  Portuguese  militia 
across  the  mountain  roads,  and  no  food  and  very  few  fresh 
troops  came  to  help  the  invaders.  When  his  army  was  almost 
perishing  from  famine,  Massena  was  constrained  to  take  it  back 
to  Spain,  suffering  so  dreadfully  by  the  way  that  he  only  brought 
back  two-thirds  of  the  men  whom  he  had  led  into  Portugal 
(March,  181 1). 

T'he  retreat  of  the  French  from  before  the  lines  of  Torres 
Vedras  was  the  turning-point  of  the  Peninsular  AVar,  and  in 
•'  Guerilla  "     some  degree  the  turning-point  of  Napoleon's  whole 
warfare  in       career,  for  Masse'na's  march  to  the  gates  of  Lisbon 
P^^"*  marke  1  the  last  and  furthest  point  of  his  advance 

towards  the  conquest  of  Western  Europe.  After  this  the 
French  were  always  to  lose  ground.  The  emperor  kept  an 
enormous  army  in  the  Peninsula,  but  he  could  never  wholly 
master  it.      No   single   region   of  Spain    would   remain   quiet 


CHARACTER   OF  THE   PENINSULAR   WAR.  4! 

unless  it  was  heavily  garrisoned ;  the  moment  that  troops  were 
withdrawn  it  blazed  up  again  into  insurrection.  The  Spanish 
levies  were  very  bad  troops  in  the  open  field,  and  were  beaten 
with  the  utmost  regularity,  even  if  they  had  two  men  to  one 
against  the  French.  But  they  never  lost  heart,  in  spite  of  their 
defeats ;  as  was  remarked  at  the  time,  "  A  Spanish  army  was 
easy  to  beat,  but  very  hard  to  destroy."  It  dispersed  after  a 
lost  battle,  but  the  survivors  came  together  again  in  a  few 
days,  as  self-confident  and  obstinate  as  ever.  The  regular 
troops  gave  the  French  far  less  trouble  than  the  "  Guerillas  " — 
half  armed  peasantry,  half  robbers,  who  lurked  in  the  moun- 
tains, refrained  from  attacking  large  bodies  of  men,  but  were 
always  pouncing  down  to  capture  convoys,  cut  off  small  isolated 
detachments,  and  harass  the  flanks  and  rear  of  troops  on  the 
march.  They  so  pervaded  the  country  that  the  transmission 
of  news  from  one  French  army  to  another  was  a  matter  of 
serious  difficulty ;  a  message  was  never  certain  to  get  safely  to 
its  destination  unless  its  bearer  was  protected  by  a  guard  of 
five  hundred  men.  The  French  habitually  shot  every  guerillero 
whom  they  caught,  and  in  return  the  insurgents  murdered  every 
straggler  that  fell  into  their  hands.  The  drain  on  the  strength 
of  the  army  of  occupation  caused  by  this  lingering  and  bloody 
war  of  retaliation  was  appalling.  It  was  not  for  nothing  that 
Bonaparte  called  the  Peninsular  War  "  the  running  sore  "  that 
sapped  his  strength. 

Meanwhile  the  emperor  was  apparently  at  the  very  zenith 
of  his  power  during  the  years  1809-11.  His  annexations 
grew  more  reckless  and  iniquitous  than  ever.  He  Extent  of 
appropriated  Holland,  expelling  his  own  brother  the  "French 
Louis  Bonaparte,  because  he  showed  some  regard  ^^P^^^' 
for  Dutch  as  opposed  to  French  interests,  and  had  ventured  to 
plead  against  the  "  Continental  System."  Soon  after,  he  annexed 
the  whole  German  coast  line  on  the  North  Sea,  and  even  the 
south-west  corner  of  the  Bnltic  shore.  This  again  was  done  in 
the  interest  of  the  Continental  System;  the  Hanseatic  towns 


4a  ENGLAND    IN   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 

had  not  shown  sufficient  enthusiasm  in  carrying  it  out,  so  he 
absorbed  them  and  cut  short  several  neighbouring  principahties. 
By  this  last  expansion  the  "  French  Empire  "  stretched  from 
Lubeck  to  Rome,  for  the  pope  had  already  been  evicted  from 
the  "  Eternal  City  "  in  1809.  In  addition,  Bonaparte  personally 
ruled  the  kingdom  of  Italy,  and  the  Illyrian  provinces  on  the 
Adriatic.  Spain,  the  Rhine  Confederation,  Switzerland,  the 
Grand  Duchy  of  Warsaw,  and  Naples  were  his  vassals.  Prussia 
was  occupied  by  his  garrisons  since  1806.  Austria,  Russia, 
Denmark,  and  Sweden  were  his  more  or  less  willins^  allies. 
The  English  had  no  friends  save  in  the  weak  kingdoms  of 
Sicily,  Sardinia,  and  Portugal,  and  among  the  still  weaker 
Spanish  insurgents. 

Meanwhile,  even  in  this  dark  time,   England  continued  to 
carry  out  without  following  the  policy  that  Pitt  had  left  behind 

him.     The  conduct  of  affairs  had  passed  into  the 
ool^v      *       hands  of  second-rate  statesmen  like  Perceval  and 

Lord    Liverpool,    but   no    hesitation   was  shown, 

though  the  National   Debt  continued  to   rise   with  appalling 

rapidity,  and  though  Napoleon  seemed  more  invincible  than 

ever.     The   war  in  Spain  was  giving   England  a  glimpse  of 

success  on  land,  though  her  armies  had  still  to  act  upon  the 

defensive,  and  to  yield  ground  when  the  enemy  came  on  in 

overwhelming  numbers.    Nation  and  ministers  alike  considered 

themselves    irrevocably  pledged   to    the   war,   and  comforted 

themselves  with  the  thought  that  Napoleon's  empire,  built  upon 

force  and  fraud,  and  maintaining  itself  by  a  cruel  oppression  of 

the  vanquished,  must  ultimately  fall  before  the  simultaneous 

uprising  of  all  the  peoples  of  Europe. 

The   year    181 1    had   seen    the    French   in  Spain   checked 

„  ,        in  their  endeavours  to   resume   the    invasion  of 

Battles  of        ^  ,       ,  t       /     ,     1  ,  ,      • 

Fuentes  Portugal.     Massena  s   last  approach    towards    Us 

d'Onoro  and    frontier  was  stopped  dead  at  the  battle  of  Fuentes 

D'Onoro  (May  5).     Eleven  days  later,  a  bloody 

fight    at    Albuera    turned    back    Marshal    Soult,    who     had 


NAPOLEON'S   EMPIRE  IN   i8ll. 


4^ 


miiA 


44  ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

endeavoured  to  drive  off  a  part  of  the  English  army  that  lay 
further  to  the  south,  blockading  the  fortress  of  Badajoz  (May 
1 6).  The  French  could  advance  no  further,  while  Wellington, 
on  the  other  hand,  was  not  yet  strong  enough  to  be  able  to 
contemplate  the  invasion  of  Spain.  It  was  expected  in  the 
Peninsula  that  Napoleon  himself  would  soon  appear,  to  finish 
the  task  which  his  lieutenants  had  proved  unable  to  carry  out. 
But  though  he  recalled  Massena,  he  neither  came  on  the  scene 
himself,  nor  sent  any  appreciable  reinforcements  to  Spain.  He 
already  saw  a  new  war  impending  over  him,  and  had  turned  all 
his  attention  to  it. 

Russia  had  not  been  completely  crushed  in  1807  :  her 
armies  had  been  beaten,  but  only  after  a  gallant  struggle,  and 
.  it  was  from  a  sincere   desire  for  peace,  and  not 

and  the  from  mere    necessity,    that   the   Czar    Alexander 

Continental  had  signed  the  Peace  of  Tilsit,  and  accepted  the 
Continental  System.  Five  years'  experience  of 
that  intolerable  burden  had  convinced  him  that  the  friend- 
ship of  Napoleon  was  dearly  bought  by  accepting  it.  His 
realm  was  losing  more  by  the  complete  suspension  of  its 
foreign  trade  than  it  could  lose  by  open  war  with  France. 
The  great  landed  proprietors,  whose  timber,  hemp,  and  wheat 
had  once  found  a  ready  market  in  England,  and  now  could 
not  be  sold  at  all,  were  furious  that  they  should  be  ruined  to 
please  Bonaparte.  Urged  on  by  threats  of  a  conspiracy  such 
as  had  overthrown  his  father  Paul  in  1801,  Alexander  yielded 
to  the  pressure  of  his  nobles,  and  broke  with  France. 

This  led  to  Napoleon's  great  invasion  of  Russia  in  181 2 — a 

grandiose  scheme,  doomed  from  the  first  to  failure,  because  its 

KT  ««!«««',.  framer  had  not  taken  into  consideration  the  diffi- 
Napoleon  s 

Russian  culties  involved  in  moving  and  feeding  a  host  of 

campaign.  600,000  men  in  a  thinly-populated  land,  destitute 
of  roads  and  great  towns.  The  Russians  retired  before  the 
invaders,  removing  all  stores  of  food,  and  causing  the  peasantry 
to  migrate  along  with  the  army.     Half  the  horses  of  Bonaparte's 


THE  BURNING   OF   MOSCOW.  45 

army  had  perished,  and  a  third  of  his  men  had  been  starved  or 

had  deserted  before  the  enemy  indulged  him  with  a  serious 

battle.     He  defeated  them  at  Borodino    (September   7)    and 

entered  Moscow,  but  only  to  find  it  deserted  and  empty.     A 

great  fire  destroyed  the  city  soon  after  his  arrival,  and  he  was 

driven  to  order  his  starving  army  to  retreat  on   Lithuania  to 

take  winter  quarters.     But  the  first  frosts  of  November  slew  off 

the  exhausted  soldiery  like  flies  ;  the  Russians  harassed  the 

melting  host  on  his  way,  till  it  broke  up  in  utter  disorganization, 

and  Bonaparte  finally  fled  to   Paris   to   organize   new  forces, 

leaving  his  lieutenants  the  task  of  bringing  back  the  30,000 

miserable  survivors  of  the  "Grand  Army,"  who  had  struggled 

out  from  the  Russian  snows. 

In  Spain,  too,  181 2  was  a  fatal  year  for  the  French  arms. 

Wellington,  having  received  more  troops  from    England,  and 

having   thorousrhly   re-ors^anized   the    Portuguese  „ 

,      ,  1  ,     ,  1  ,     •         c^    ■       Storming  of 

army,  resolved  to  make  a  bold  push  mto  Spam,  ciudad 

Early  in  the  year  he  took  by  storm  the  two  great  Rodri^-o  and 

•   ^-i  \    ^     1  ■        /x  Badajoz. 

frontier   fortresses  ot    Cuidad    Rodrigo   (January, 

19)  and  Badajoz  (April  6),  striking  so  swiftly  that  the  armies 

of  succour  could  not  come  up  in  time  to   save  them.     This 

rapid  success  was  bought  at  the  cost  of  many  lives,  for  the 

assaults  had  to  be  delivered  before  the  fire  of  the  defenders 

had  been  subdued ;  but  time  was  all-important,  and  the  result 

justified   the   lavish  expense  of  blood.     Having    secured  the 

frontier  of  Portugal,  Wellington  pressed  forward  into  Spain, 

and   won  the   first   great   victory  in   which   he   assumed    the 

offensive,  at   Salamanca  (July   22,    181 2).     By  a 

sudden  master-stroke  he  crushed  in  the  flank  of  Salamanca. 

Marshal   Marmont,  and  "  routed  40,000  men  in 

forty  minutes."     This  victory  led  to  the  recovery  of   Madrid 

and   the  flight  of  Joseph  Bonaparte  from   his  capital.     But, 

evacuating  the  other  provinces  of  Spain,  the   French  armies 

massed  themselves  to  check  Wellington's  further  advance,  and 

before   their  superior  numbers  the  English  had  to  fall   back 


46  ENGLAND   IN   THE    NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

on  the  Portuguese  frontier.  All  southern  Spain,  however, 
had  been  cleared  of  the  invaders,  who  now  only  held  the 
northern  half  of  the  Peninsula. 

The  next  year  (1813)  saw  the  complete  ruin  of  Napoleon. 
When  the  Russians  advanced  into  Germany,  the  whole 
Battle  of  nation  rose  in  arms  to  aid  them.  Prussia  alone, 
Leipzig— Fall  though  she  had  been  mutilated  and  robbed  and 
o  apo  eon.  oppj-gggg^j  ^jj-j^  French  garrisons,  put  200,000 
men  into  the  field.  The  Emperor  once  more  appeared  at 
the  head  of  a  vast  army,  bringing  up  his  last  reserves,  huge 
drafts  from  the  army  of  Spain,  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
conscripts.  But  his  troops  were  no  longer  the  veterans  of 
Austerlitz,  and  his  enemies  fought  with  a  fury  of  which  he  had 
never  before  had  experience.  He  gained  a  few  successes  in 
the  opening  weeks  of  the  struggle,  but  when  his  own  father-in- 
law,  the  Austrian  Emperor,  plunged  into  the  struggle,  the  odds 
became  too  heavy,  and  at  the  battle  of  Leipzig  (October  16—18, 
18 13)  he  was  overwhelmed  by  numbers,  and  suffered  a 
crushing  defeat,  in  which  more  than  half  his  army  was  slain 
or  captured.  The  enemy  pursued  him  energetically,  gave  him 
no  time  to  rally,  and  entered  France  at  his  heels.  They  had 
at  last  learnt  to  turn  his  own  methods  of  war  against  him,  and 
knew  that  a  beaten  foe  must  not  be  allowed  time  to  rally. 
Crossing  the  Rhine  at  midwinter,  the  allies  pushed  deep  into 
France.  Bonaparte,  with  the  wrecks  of  his  army,  made  a 
desperate  resistance,  but  had  not  a  shadow  of  a  chance  of 
success.  In  spite  of  his  skilful  manoeuvring,  and  of  the 
splendid  endurance  of  his  troops,  he  was  forced  nearer  and 
nearer  to  Paris.  At  last,  while  he  was  engaged  with  a  mere 
fraction  of  the  allied  host,  the  bulk  of  it  marched  past  his 
flank  and  stormed  the  lines  in  front  of  the  French  capital 
(April  4,  1814).  On  the  news  of  the  fall  of  Paris,  Napoleon's 
own  marshals  refused  to  persist  in  the  hopeless  struggle,  and 
compelled  their  master  to  lay  down  his  arms  and  abdicate.  In 
the  rage  of  the  moment  the  emperor  swallowed  poison,  but  his 


ABDICATION   OF   NAPOLEON.  47 

constitution  was  too  strong,  and  he  survived  to  fall  into  the 

hands  of  the  victors.     They  sent  him  to  honourable  exile  in 

the  Tuscan  island  of  Elba,  whose  sovereignty  was  bestowed 

upon  him. 

While  the  Russians,  Prussians,  and  Austrians  had  entered 

France  from  the  north-east,  another  army  of  invasion  had  been 

pourino^  into  the  southern  departments.     Welling-    „ 

,  •         r     o  r  1     •  1    Battle  of 

ton  s  campaign  of  18 13  was  the  most  glorious  and   Vittoria— 

successful    of    all   his    achievements.       In    early   Wellington 

...  ,  ,  enters 

spring  he  massed  his  troops  on  the  north-western    France. 

frontier  of  Portugal,  and  marched  rapidly  up  the 

valley  of  the  Douro.     The  French  armies,  scattered  in  distant 

cantonments,  could  not  unite  in  numbers  sufficient  to  give  him 

battle  till  he  had  pushed  them  as  far  as  Vittoria,  at  the  very 

foot  of  the  Pyrenees.     When  they  did  turn  to  fight,  he  beat 

them,  intercepted  their  line  of  retreat,  captured  all  their  guns 

and  baggage — the  proceeds  of  the  six  years'  plunder  of  Spain — ■ 

and  drove  them  headlong  into  France  (June  21,  18 13).     After 

having  defeated  a  month  later  a  last  endeavour  of  Marshal  Soult 

to  force  his  way  back  into  the  Peninsula  (July  27-30,   1813) 

at  the  battles  of  the  Pyrenees,  Wellington  captured  the  great 

frontier  fortresses  of  San  Sebastian  and  Pampeluna.     He  then 

crossed  into  France,  and  spent  the  winter  and  the  early  spring 

of   18 14  in  forcing  Soult   back  over  the   rivers   and   hills   of 

Beam  and  Gascony.     Just  before  Napoleon's  fall,  one  division 

of  his  army  captured  Bordeaux,  while  he  himself  with  the  main 

body  evicted  Soult  from  Toulouse,  after  the  last  and  one  of  the 

bloodiest  fights  of  the  Peninsular  War  (April  14).     When  the 

news  of  peace  came,  he  was  in  full  military  occupation  of  eight 

French  departments,  and  the  two  largest  towns  of  Southern 

France. 

After  the  fall  of  Paris,  and  the  abdication  of  Napoleon,  the 

allied  powers  placed  on  the  throne  the  representative  of  the 

long-exiled  house  of  Bourbon,  Louis  XVIII. — the  best  choice 

perhaps  that  they  could  make,  yet  in  itself  an  unsatisfactory 


48  ENGLAND   IN   THE    NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

experiment.  Louis,  though  not  destitute  of  a  certain  shrewd- 
Restoration  "^^^'  ^^^^  elderly,  and  a  confirmed  valetudinarian ; 
of  Louis  he  left  the  conduct  of  affairs  to  ministers  whose 

unwise  actions  made  the  French  complain  that 
"the  Bourbons  had  learned  nothing  and  forgotten  nothing" 
— they  behaved,  in  short,  as  if  the  whole  Revolution  and  its 
consequences  had  passed  over  their  heads  unnoticed.  Mean- 
while the  allies  met  in  congress  at  Vienna  to  redistribute 
Europe  and  to  make  an  end  of  the  relics  of  the  Napoleonic 
regime.  There  were  many  conflicting  interests,  for  the  desires 
of  Prussia,  Russia,  and  Austria  crossed  each  other  on  a  dozen 
points,  and  a  long  period  of  friction  was  inevitable  before  a 
settlement  could  be  reached.  But  the  powers  commenced  to 
disarm,  and  thought  nothing  less  probable  than  a  new  French 
war. 

England  alone  was  unable  to  disband  her   troops   or  dis- 
mantle her  navy.     She  was  still  engaged  in  a  struggle  which 

had  broken  out  in  i8i  2.  One  of  the  consequences 
Sf  waT""     of  the  Continental  System  and  the   "  Orders  in 

Council  "  had  been  to  inflict  grave  hardships  on 
the  trade  of  the  United  States,  the  one  great  neutral  power  in 
the  world.  France  and  Great  Britain  had  done  them  equal 
damage,  but  it  was  natural  that  the  Americans  should  resent 
more  the  action  of  the  power  which  lay  nearer  to  them  and 
domineered  over  the  seas.  They  were  specially  vexed  at  the 
harsh  exercise  of  the  right  of  search,  and  the  frequent  impress- 
ment of  British  seamen  found  serving  on  American  ships,  whose 
change  of  nationality  our  Government  refused  to  recognize.  To 
these  sources  of  irritation  was  added  a  notion  that  while 
England  was  locked  in  her  death-grapple  ^^ith  Bonaparte,  it 
would  be  easy  to  overrun  and  annex  Canada.  Hence  it  came 
that  the  United  States  declared  war  in  the  summer  of  181 2. 
This  "  stab  in  the  l)ack,"  as  the  English  called  it,  had  no  effect 
whatever  on  the  general  course  of  the  European  war.  The 
small  garrison  of  Canada,  gallantly  aided  by  the  local  militia, 


THE   AMERICAN   WAR   OF    1812.  49 

beat  off  every  attempt  to  invade  the  great  colony,  and  even 
compelled  two  small  American  armies  to  surrender.  It  did 
not  prove  to  be  necessary  to  distract  troops  from  Europe  for  their 
aid.  On  the  other  hand,  the  English  navy  had  an  unpleasant 
surprise  when,  on  three  separate  occasions,  the  large  and  admi- 
rably-handled American  frigates  took  or  sunk  British  ships 
of  slightly  inferior  force  in  single  combat — a  thing  which 
no  French,  Spanish,  or  Dutch  vessel  had  ever  accomplished. 
The  American  ships  had  to  be  hunted  down  by  superior 
numbers — a  fact  very  galling  to  the  pride  of  their  opponents. 
A  considerable  amount  of  damage  was  also  done  to  our  mer- 
cantile marine  by  American  privateers.  On  the  other  hand,  a 
strict  blockade  sealed  up  Boston  and  all  the  other  ports  of  the 
United  States,  whose  commerce  was  for  the  moment  absolutely 
annihilated.  When  Napoleon  was  at  last  disposed  of,  the 
British  Government  began  to  pour  Wellington's  Peninsular 
veterans  into  xAmerica.  One  expedition  took  Washington,  the 
capital  of  the  United  States,  though  another  sent  against 
New  Orlean-s  was  beaten  back  with  fearful  loss.  But  before 
serious  pressure  had  been  applied,  a  peace  was  signed  at  Ghent 
(December  24,  181 4),  which  left  all  matters—  territorial  ar.d 
other — just  as  they  had  been  before  181 2.  The  end  of  Na- 
poleon and  his  Continental  System  had  removed  the  cause  of 
war,  and  both  parties  gladly  brought  it  to  an  end. 

Meanwhile,  in  March,  181 5,  a  new  and  unexpected  crisis 
had  arisen  in  Europe.  While  the  envoys  at  Vienna  were 
engaged  in  parcelling  out  the  spoils  of  Napoleon,  Napoleon 
they  received  the  unwelcome  news  that  the  ex-  escapes  from 
emperor  had  escaped  from  Elba,  landed  in 
Provence,  and  called  his  old  followers  to  arms.  The  Bourbons 
had  made  themselves  so  profoundly  unpopular  that  no  one 
would  fight  for  them ;  whole  regiments  and  brigades  tore  off 
their  white  cockades  and  came  to  join  the  great  adventurer. 
In  a  few  days  he  was  at  the  head  of  100,000  men.  Louis  XVIII. 
fled  to  Flanders,  and  ere  he  had  been  gone  more  than  a  few 

£ 


50  ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

hours  Napoleon  was  again  installed  in  the  Tuileries.  He 
trusted  that  his  sudden  success  might  impose  on  the  allies,  and 
that  the  dissensions  which  had  divided  the  Congress  of  Vienna 
might  keep  them  from  united  action.  But  he  was  woefully 
mistaken.  Every  state  in  Europe  promptly  declared  war  on 
him. 

Seeing  that  his  only  chance  lay  in  swift  action,  Napoleon 
dashed  into  Belgium  with  all  the  troops  he  could  collect,  some 
Battles  of  130,000  men.  He  had  then  to  face  a  Prussian 
Ligny  and  army  under  Marshal  Bllicher,  and  a  composite 
V2uatre  ras.  ^^^^^  ^f  English  Hanoverians  and  Dutch,  which 
had  been  placed  under  the  command  of  Wellington.  The 
Austrians  and  Russians  were  still  far  off.  The  campaign  of 
18 1 5  was  settled  in  six  days.  Bonaparte  struck  at  the  point 
where  Wellington's  left  joined  Bliicher's  right,  intending  to 
thrust  himself  between  them  and  defeat  them  piecemeal.  His 
first  stroke  against  the  Prussians  was  successful  :  he  drove 
Bliicher  with  heavy  loss  from  his  position  at  Ligny  (June  16), 
while  his  lieutenant  Marshal  Ney  detained  the  leading  divisions 
of  the  English  army  by  an  indecisive  action  at  Quatre  Bras. 
Then,  leaving  a  force  under  Grouchy  to  pursue  Bliicher,  he 
turned  his  main  body  against  Wellington,  who  offered  him 
battle  on  the  position  of  Mont  St.  Jean,  eight  miles  south  of 
Brussels  (June  18). 

For  seven  hours  Wellington  held  his  own  on  his  chosen 
ground.    Though  his  Dutch  and  Belgian  troops  melted  from  the 

field,  his  steady  English  and  German  battalions 
of  Waterloo    stood    out   nobly   against   the    pounding   of    the 

French  artillery,  and  the  furious  charges  of  the 
emperor's  numerous  horse.  The  British  squares  were  still  un- 
broken when  in  the  afternoon  the  Prussian  army  began  to 
come  on  the  field.  Bliicher  had  evaded  Grouchy,  and  loyally 
marched  to  the  aid  of  his  colleague.  Seeing  himself  likely  to 
be  caught  between  two  fires,  Bonaparte  tried  a  last  desperate 
stroke :    he  flung    5000    veterans    of    his    Imperial  Guard   on 


BATTLE   OF   WATERLOO.  5 1 

Wellington's  right  centre,  hoping  to  break  through  his  enemy's 
line  ere  the  Prussian  pressure  became  intolerable.  But  the 
deadly  fire  of  the  British  infantry  mowed  down  the  advancing 
columns  before  they  could  reach  the  head  of  the  slope ;  and 
when  the  Guard  was  seen  reeling  to  the  rear,  the  whole  French 
host  broke  up  in  hopeless  confusion  and  fled.  They  could  not 
be  rallied  till  they  had  reached  the  very  gates  of  Paris,  and 
Napoleon's  doom  was  sealed.  He  had  to  abdicate  a  second 
time  as  soon  as  the  allies  appeared  in  front  of  his  capital,  and 
when  he  surrendered  himself  to  the  British,  was  despatched,  not 
to  an  honourable  exile  in  Europe,  but  to  the  lonely  island  of 
St.  Helena,  in  the  South  Atlantic,  where  he  had  to  eat  out  his 
heart  for  six  years  in  enforced  idleness,  and  finally  died  of 
cancer  in  182 1. 

There  was  nothing  to  be  feared  from   France,   where  the 
weak  rule  of  the  restored  Bourbons  gave  their  neighbours  no 
trouble  for  some  years.     So  Europe  was  able  to 
settle   its  accounts    at   the    Congress    of  Vienna  The  Con- 
without    further  disturbance.     Great   Britain   was  Vienna— 
paid  handsomely,  but  by  no  means  lavishly,  for  Acquisitions 
the  part  that  she  had  taken  in  the  long  struggle  Britain, 
against  the    Corsican    usurper.      In   Europe  she 
received   two    strongholds    to    make     firm    her     hold    on   the 
Mediterranean — the  invaluable  strategical  point  of  Malta,  and 
the  Ionian   Islands  further  to  the  east.      She  also  kept  the 
small  island  of  Heligoland,  in  the  North  Sea,  which  had  served 
as  a  great  smuggling  depot  during  the  Great  War.     In  America 
we  retained  the  Dutch  colony  of  Demerara  on  the  Southern 
Continent — the  tropical  region  now  known  as  British  Guiana ; 
in  the  West  Indies  we  took  from  the  French  St.  Lucia  and 
Tobago.     In  the  Indian  Ocean  the  valuable  Isle  of  Mauritius 
(Isle  de  France)  was  ceded  by  France,  and  Holland  gave  up 
her  settlement  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  which  served  as  an 
admirable  halfway  house  to  our  Indian  possessions,  and  has 
been  the  nucleus  of  our  South  African  empire.     The  English 


52  ENGLAND    IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

Government  might  have  asked  and  obtained  still  more ;  but  it 
was  thought  that  by  securing  complete  domination  in  the  com- 
mercial and  manufacturing  world  during  the  war,  Britain  had 
gained  so  much  that  she  need  not  be  over-exacting.  Valuable 
colonies  by  the  dozen  were  handed  back  to  France  and 
Holland,  with  an  almost  extravagant  liberality. 

The  settlement  of  Continental  Europe  concerned  us  com- 
paratively little,  save  in  one  point.  Holland  and  Belgium  were 
The  re-  formed  into  a  new  "  Kingdom  of  the  Netherlands," 

settlement  of   which  was  expected  to  prove  a  firm  ally  of  Britain 
urope.  ^^^  ^  barrier  against  the  northern  extension  of 

France.  For  the  rest,  Austria  took  Venice  and  Lombardy; 
Prussia  received  broad  grants  on  the  Rhine  and  in  Saxony  ; 
Russia  absorbed  Napoleon's  "  Grand  Duchy  of  Warsaw."  The 
petty  despots  of  Central  and  Southern  Italy — the  Pope,  the 
King  of  Naples,  and  the  rest — secured  an  undeserved  return 
to  their  long-lost  realms.  France  was  confined  within  her  old 
boundaries  of  the  year  1792. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

FROM    THE    FALL    OF    NAPOLEON    TO   THE    GREAT   REFORM    BILL. 
1815-1832. 

The  England  which  emerged  from  the  great  war  of  1793-18 15 
was  a  very  different  country  from  the  England   of  the  days 
before  the  French  Revolution.     In  all  her  history  ^ng-i^nd 
there  has  never  been  a  period  of  twenty-two  years  after  the 
into  which   so    many   changes    have   been   com-  ^^^^  ^^^' 
pressed.     Not  merely  in  matters  political  and  economic,  but  in 
all  social  matters — in  literature,  in  national  feeling,  in  everyday 
thought  and  life — there  was  a  profound  alteration  visible.     For 
the  most  part  the  change  had  been  for  the  better :  the  great 
war  had  exercised  a  most  wholesome  and  sobering  effect  on 
the  national  character.     Few  men  had  watched  the  atrocities  of 
the   French   Revolution,  or  lived  through  the  long  period  of 
suspense  in   1802-1805,  when  foreign  invasion  was  daily  ex- 
pected, without  taking  a  profound  impression  from  those  times 
of  storm  and  stress.     In  the  eighteenth  century  we  often  hear 
complaints  of  the  want  of  patriotism  and  public  spirit  in  Great 
Britain  :  no  such  reproach  could  be  made  to  the  generation 
which  had  fought  through  the  great  French  war.     The  slack- 
ness and  cynicism  of  the  eighteenth  century  had 
been  completely  lived  down.     Political   morality  ment  in 

had  been    enormously    improved :    in  the  latter  political 

morality, 
years   of  the   war  Whig  and  Tory  had  learnt  to 

work  together  for  the  common  national  good  despite  of  mere 


54  ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

party  interests.  In  1806-7  a  Tory  majority  had  accepted  a 
Whig  ministry  because  it  seemed  for  the  moment  desirable  :  in 
the  following  years  the  Whigs  had  refrained  from  captious 
opposition  to  the  later  Tory  cabinets — though  of  course  they 
had  not  ceased  to  criticise  their  measures.  There  were  none 
of  the  selfish  and  immoral  combinations  of  cliques  and  groups 
which  used  to  disgrace  the  eighteenth  century.  Parliamentary 
corruption  of  the  bad  old  sort — the  buying  of  members  by  hard 
cash  or  gifts  of  sinecures — had  practically  disappeared.  States- 
men suspected  of  a  want  of  private  integrity  could  no  longer 
come  to  the  front. 

The  improved  standard  of  political  morals  only  reflected  the 
general  rise  in  the  social  morality  of  the  nation.     There  was  a 
growing  feeling  against  drunkenness,  foul  language, 
morality  gambling,  and  open  profligacy,  which  had  been 

looked  upon  with  such  a  tolerant  eye  thirty  years 
before.  Nothing  shows  it  better  than  the  deep  unpopularity  of 
the  Regent,  George,  Prince  of  Wales,  who  carried  far  into  the 
nineteenth  century  the  evil  manners  of  the  eighteenth.  The 
contempt  and  dislike  felt  for  him  by  the  majority  of  the  nation 
would  never  have  been  felt  to  such  an  extent  by  the  older 
generation. 

The  revival  of  religious  earnestness,  which  had  begun  with 
Wesley  and  the  Methodists,  was  enormously  developed  by  the 
influence  of  the  war.  The  blasphemous  antics  of 
*  the  French  Revolutionists  had  shocked  thousands 
of  Englishmen  into  a  more  serious  view  of  life,  and  twenty 
years  of  national  peril  had  put  flii)pancy  at  a  discount.  Promi- 
nent men  who  made  no  secret  of  their  earnest  religious  con- 
victions were  no  longer  liable  to  be  sneered  at  as  enthusiasts  or 
condemned  as  fanatics.  All  through  the  period  the  Low 
Church  or  Evangelical  party  was  working  hard  and  gaining  an 
increasing  hold  on  the  nation.  The  religious  indifferentism  of 
the  eighteenth  century  had  disappeared. 

Nothing  shows  the  general  improvement  of  the  nation  better 


BRITAIN   IN    1815.  55 

than  the  higher  tone  of  its  literature.     To  the  men  of  1820  the 
coarse  taste  of  the  men  of  1750  had  become  in- 
tolerable.    Many  will  remember  Sir  Walter  Scott's  nteratur?* 
story  of  his  friend  who  read  over  in  old  age  the 
books  which  had  seemed  amusing  fifty  years  back,  and  found 
that  they  only  raised  a  feeling  of  shame  and  disgust.     It  was  a 
fact  of  a  very  typical  sort  that  Scott  himself  was  by  far  the 
most  popular  poet  of  his  own  day  ;  men  preferred  his  healthy, 
vigorous,  patriotic  strains  to  the  work  of  his  younger  contem- 
poraries, Byron  and  Shelley  :  though  both  were  greater  poets 
than  the  author  of  Marmion  and  the  Last  Minstrel^  the  one 
was  too  morbid  and  satanic,  and  the  other  too  hysterical  and 
anarchic  for  the  taste  of  the  time. 

Turning  to  matters  of  a  more  tangible  kind,  we  find  as  great 
a  difference  in  the  England  of  1792  and  of  1815.     The  popu- 
lation and  resources  of  the  country  had  grown  in  increase  in 
those  twenty-two   years  in  a  measure  for  which  population 
previous  history  could   afford  no  parallel.     The  ^"^  wealth, 
distribution  of  the  newly-gotten  wealth  was  far  less  satisfactory, 
and  numerous  social  problems  had  grown  up  which  were  bound 
to  force  themselves  upon  public  attention  the  moment  that  the 
stress  of  war  was  removed.     In  population,  the  United  Kingdom 
had  increased  from  14,000,000  to  19,000,000  souls,  in  spite  of 
the  considerable  waste  of  life  in  the  foreign  war  and  in  the  Irish 
troubles  of  1797  8. 

But  the  rise   in  trade  and  commerce  had  been   far   more 
startling.     Our  exports  had  more  than  doubled:  in  1792  they 
had  stood  at /" 2 7,000,000  ;  in   1815   the   figures  Growth  of 
were   ^{^5 8,000,000.     The  imports  had  gone  up  trade  and 
between   the    same  years  from  ^19,000,000    to  *^°"^"^^^c^* 
;^3 2,000,000.       Still   more   astounding   was    the    rise    in    the 
national  finances.     The  ordinary  peace  revenue  had  produced 
;^i 9,000,000  in  1792  :  the  same  heads  of  taxation,  as  opposed 
to  the  extra  war-revenue,  brought  in  ;^45,ooo,ooo  in  181 5.     It 
was  this  marvellous  expansion  of  our  resources  alone  which 


56  ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

had  enabled  us  to  last  out  the  Napoleonic  struggle.  If,  as 
generally  happens  during  war,  the  national  resources  had 
decayed  rather  than  multiplied  under  the  stress  of  heavy  tax- 
ation and  constant  alarms,  we  should  have  been  exhausted  long 
before  Bonaparte  had  run  through  his  full  career.  We  have 
spoken  already  of  the  main  factor  of  our  prosperity,  the  mono- 
poly of  the  carrying  trade  of  the  world,  which  we  had  won  by 
our  naval  victories,  and  which  our  enemy's  insane  "  Continental 
System  "  had  done  much  to  confirm  to  us.  The  other  great 
element  in  the  growth  of  the  wealth  of  Britain  had  been  the 
immense  development  of  our  internal  manufactures.  Even 
before  1792  the  development  of  machinery  in  our  factories 
had  already  begun,  and  we  were  rapidly  asserting  a  superiority 
over  our  neighbours.  The  war  completed  our  ascendency. 
While  every  other  land  in  Europe  was  repeatedly  overrun  by 
hostile  armies.  Great  Britain  alone  was  free  to  work  out  her 
new  discoveries  without  interruption.  Many  of  her  industries 
were  notably  fostered  by  the  lavish  expenditure  on  our  army 
and  navy  :  the  demand  for  iron  and  steel,  cloth  and  cotton,  for 
military  purposes  had  been  enormous.  Our  factories  had  been 
working  for  continental  paymasters  also :  even  Napoleon  him- 
self, it  is  said,  had  been  compelled  to  secretly  procure  from 
Yorkshire  looms  the  cloth  for  the  coats  of  the  army  which  took 
the  field  in  181 3,  so  entirely  had  continental  manufactures 
failed  him. 

There  was  a  general  and  very  natural  expectation  in  18 15- 16 
that  the  termination  of  the  great  continental  war  would  bring 
about  a  period  of  even  greater  expansion  and 
discontent  commercial  supremacy  for  Great  Britain.  "  Peace 
of  the  labour-  ^nd  Prosperity"  have  always  been  Unked  in 
*  men's  minds.  It  is,  therefore,  at  first  sight 
strange  to  find  that  the  five  years  which  immediately  followed 
Waterloo  were  among  the  most  troublous  and  unhappy  periods 
in  our  domestic  history.  So  widespread  and  long-continued 
was  the  distress  and  unrest,  tliat  men  of  gloomy  and  pessimistic 


DISTRESS   AFTER   THE   WAR.  57 

frame  of  mind  feared  that  we  were  on  the  edge  of  a  social 
revolution.  The  causes  of  the  misery  of  the  years  18 16-21 
are,  however,  not  difficult  to  understand.  They  affected  both 
the  agricultural  and  the  manufacturing  interests. 

The  war  had  naturally  caused  an  enormous  rise  in  the 
prices  of  all  agricultural  produce.  We  had  been  cut  off  from 
the  corn-markets  of  Europe,  and  after  18 12  from 
those  of  America  also.  Moreover,  the  unwise  diftress. 
system  of  "protection,"  which  the  Tory  party 
consistently  carried  out,  tended  to  keep  corn  artificially  dear 
by  the  heavy  import  duties  imposed  on  the  supply  from  foreign 
countries.  This  monopoly  of  the  English  grower  of  cereal 
products  had  led  to  an  altogether  unnatural  inflation  of  prices : 
thrice  between  18 10  and  18 14  the  annual  average  value  of  the 
quarter  of  wheat  had  risen  over  loos.  We  consider  it  dear 
now  when  the  figure  of  30^-.  has  been  reached.  While  the 
town  dwellers  suffered  from  the  exorbitant  cost  of  the  loaf, 
the  land-owners  and  farmers  had  gained  :  the  rents  of  the 
one,  the  profits  of  the  other,  had  increased  to  an  immoderate 
degree.  The  poorer  agricultural  classes  had  not  shared  to  any 
great  extent  in  this  prosperity,  owing  to  the  iniquitous  system 
of  the  Poor  Law,  of  which  we  shall  have  to  speak  later  on. 
But  from  1814  onward  the  inflated  war  prices  ceased,  and 
during  the  next  three  years  the  cost  of  wheat  varied  from  60s. 
to  8oJ-.  the  quarter,  instead  of  from  gos.  to  120^-.  This  was 
a  terrible  blow  to  the  farmers  and  landlords,  who  had  calculated 
their  rents  and  their  expenditure  on  the  higher  average,  as  if 
the  war  was  to  last  for  ever.  The  whole  agricultural  interest 
was  very  hard  hit,  and  many  individuals  were  ruined.  But 
the  worst  of  the  stress  fell  on  the  unfortunate  labourers, 
though  they  had  not  shared  in  the  profits  of  the  time  of 
inflated  prices  that  had  just  ended.  When  the  farmers  were 
turning  off  their  hands  and  cutting  down  wages,  the  poorer 
classes  in  the  country  were  not  compensated  by  the  fact  that 
the  loaf  had  become  appreciably  cheaper.      There   followed 


S8  ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

acute  distress,  which  ended  in  riots  and  rick-burning  over  large 
districts  of  the  southern  and  midland  shires.  There  were 
wild  rumours  of  secret  associations,  of  plots  for  a  general  rising 
like  that  of  the  French  peasants  in  1789,  with  plunder  and 
massacre  to  follow.  Most  of  this  talk  was  groundless,  but 
there  was  a  certain  amount  of  fire  beneath  the  smoke,  and  in 
many  parts  the  labourers  were  ready  for  mischief. 

While  rural  England  was  in  this  unhappy  state,  the  great 
towns  were  also  in  evil  case.  In  18 15- 18  the  manufacturing 
Troubles  in  classes  were  suffering  from  their  own  set  of 
the  manufac-  troubles  almost  as  much  as  the  agricultural 
turing towns,  classes.  The  cessation  of  the  war  had  put  an 
end  to  the  unnatural  expansion  of  the  industries  which  had 
profited  by  our  naval  and  military  expenditure  :  the  price  of 
iron,  for  example,  fell  from  ^20  to  ^8  a  ton  when  the  Govern- 
ment ceased  to  be  a  buyer.  In  many  trades,  too,  over-specu- 
lation on  the  part  of  the  great  employers  of  labour  led  to 
distress.  There  had  been  a  widespread  notion  that  the 
countries  of  the  continent  would  be  able  to  absorb  almost  any 
amount  of  English  goods  the  moment  that  the  Continental 
System  was  removed.  Our  factories  at  once  threw  upon  the 
world  such  a  vastly-increased  output  that  the  foreign  market 
was  glutted:  indeed,  the  final  struggle  of  1812-14  had  so 
drained  the  resources  of  France,  Russia,  Spain,  and  Germany, 
that  they  had  little  or  no  money  to  buy  luxuries  or  even  neces- 
saries. The  exported  goods  had  to  be  sent  back  or  sold  at  an 
actual  loss.  Hence  came  bankruptcies  and  wholesale  dis- 
missal of  operatives  at  home.  The  labour  market  was  at  the 
same  time  affected  by  the  disbanding  of  many  scores  of 
thousands  of  soldiers  and  sailors.  As  many  as  250,000  men 
were  released  from  service  in  181 6-1 7-18,  and  had  to  find 
themselves  new  trades  at  short  notice.  Another  source  of 
trouble  was  the  dying  out  of  the  old  trades  which  had  sub- 
sisted on  hand-labour,  and  were  being  superseded  by  machinery. 
The  last  generation  of  the  workmen  in  these  industries  suffered 


DEATH   OF   THE   PRINCESS   CHARLOTTE.  59 

bitter  privations  before  they  could  or  would  transfer  themselves 
to  other  occupations.  It  was  they  who  distinguished  them- 
selves by  the  so-called  Luddite  outrages,  in  which  gangs  went 
by  night  to  destroy  the  machinery  in  the  new  factories  which 
were  underselling  their  labour. 

The  Government  which  had   to    face  all  these  difficulties, 
social  and  economic,  was  unfortunately  not  in  the  least  com- 
petent   to    deal    with    them.       George    III.    had  ,,    , 
^  ,,  ,  .     ,         r-       r        ^       11  ^  Madncss  of 

fallen  mto  his  last  fit  of  melancholy  madness  m  the  King— 

18 lo,  and  his  son  Geors^e,  Prince  of  Wales,  was  ^^  Prince 

Regfent. 
a  sorry  substitute  for  him.     The  father  had  often 

been  obstinate  and  wrong-headed,  but  at  least  he  was  always 
honest,  courageous,  and  a  model  of  all  the  domestic  virtues  : 
no  one  could  help  respecting  the  good  old  king,  whatever  he 
might  think  of  his  wisdom.  But  the  Regent  was  frankly  dis- 
reputable :  he  tried  the  loyalty  of  England  to  the  monarchical 
system  as  no  other  ruler  has  done  since  James  II.  A  de- 
bauchee and  gambler,  a  disobedient  son,  a  cruel  husband,  a 
heartless  father,  an  ungrateful  and  treacherous  friend,  he  was 
a  sore  burden  to  the  ministries  which  had  to  act  in  his  name 
and  palliate  his  misdoings.  There  was  a  widespread  hope  that 
his  ruined  constitution  would  not  carry  him  through  many 
more  years,  and  that  the  succession  might  pass  to  his  young 
daughter,  the  Princess  Charlotte.  But  she  died  in  childbirth 
in  1816,  a  year  after  her  marriage  to  Leopold  of  Saxe-Coburg, 
and  her  father  was  destined  to  prolong  his  worthless  life  for 
fourteen  years  longer. 

The  cabinet  which  held  office  under  the   Regent  was  the 
Tory  administration   of    Lord   Liverpool.     Its  chief  was   an 
honest  man  and  a  good   financier,   but  narrow-  j^ord  Liver- 
minded,  prejudiced,  and  blindly  opposed  to  all  pool's  Cabi- 
measures  of  political  reform.     His  home  secretary  "^  ' 
was  Addington  (now  Lord  Sidmouth),  the  unsuccessful  premier 
of  1 80 1-4,  a  man  even  more  bigoted  than  his  chief.     Foreign 
affairs  were  in  the  hands  of  Lord  Castlereagh,  another  high 


6o         ENGLAND  IN  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURV. 

Tory,  who  had  done  good  service  as  a  diplomatist  during  the 
Napoleonic  war,  but  was  a  reactionary,  and  suspected  of  being 
too  great  a  friend  of  the  despotic  monarchs  of  the  continent. 

Lord  Liverpool's  ministry  acted  according  to  the  best  of  its 
lights  in  dealing  with  the  crisis  of  1816-20.     They  cut  down 

expenses  as  far  as  they  were  able,  reduced  the 
repressive  ^^my  and  navy  to  the  lowest  limit  consistent  with 
measures  of  safety,  and  did  good  service  by  restoring  the 
ment.°^^^"'     Currency,  and  replacing  by  a  new  coinage  of  gold 

sovereigns  the  depreciated  bank-notes  which  had 
carried  England  through  the  war.*"  But  thrift  and  honest 
finance  were  not  sufficient  to  deal  with  the  national  troubles : 
measures  of  political  and  economic  reform  were  urgently 
needed,  and  these  the  Liverpool  cabinet  was  determined  not 
to  grant.  They  looked  upon  the  strikes  and  riots  that  vexed 
the  land,  not  as  manifestations  of  poverty  and  starvation — 
which  was  in  the  main  their  real  character — but  as  symptoms 
of  a  dangerous  revolutionary  conspiracy  against  the  monarchy. 
The  few  noisy  demagogues  who  were  endeavouring  to  make 
capital  out  of  the  national  discontent,  they  treated  as  if  they 
were  embryo  Robespierres  and  Marats.  Against  the  demon- 
strations and  meetings  of  the  distressed  they  employed  armed 
force  with  a  wholly  unnecessary  harshness.  In  the  one  or  two 
cases  where  the  rioters  acted  with  violence,  as  at  the  Spa 
Fields  Riot  in  London  (1816),  the  Derby  rising  (June,  1817), 
and  the  Bonnymuir  rising  in  Scotland  (June,  1820),  they  made 
a  very  feeble  show  when  resolutely  faced :  but  the  Government 
none  the  less  had  some  dozens  of  them  executed  for  treason. 
A  much  less  formidable  indictment  and  a  far  milder  punish- 
ment would  have  sufficed  for  such  half-hearted  revolutionaries. 
The  greatest  of   the  mistakes  of  the  ruling  powers  was   the 

♦  |n  the  worst  years  of  the  war  the  bank-note  for  £^  would  only  buy 
about  ;^3  iSs.  in  gold.  There  had  been  practically  no  coinage  of  guineas 
since  1797,  nor  of  silver  since  1787.  The  new  issue  of  gold  was  made  in 
sovereigns,  not  in  guineas,  a  great  convenience  in  all  payments. 


tHE   CATO-StREET   CONSPIRACY.  6i 

unhappy  business  at  Manchester  on  August  i6,  1819.  An 
orderly  demonstration  by  an  unarmed  multitude  was  dispersed 
by  a  cavalry  charge,  in  which  some  five  or  six  people  were 
trodden  to  death,  and  sixty  or  seventy  injured  or  wounded. 

The  cabinet  had  just  so  much  excuse  that  there  were  a  few 
hot-headed  demagogues  who  really  meant  mischief.  The  best 
known  was  a  certain  Arthur  Thistlewood,  a  bank-  -^Iiq  Cato- 
rupt  adventurer  who  had  a  small  following  in  street  Con- 
London.  He  was  a  wild  incendiary  of  the  type  ^P^^^^y- 
of  the  French  Jacobins,  whose  language  and  violence  he  care- 
fully imitated.  To  avenge  the  "  Manchester  Massacre,"  he 
plotted  the  wholesale  murder  of  the  ministers.  Learning  that 
the  whole  cabinet  were  about  to  dine  together  on  February  23, 
1820,  he  persuaded  a  score  of  frantic  desperadoes  to  join  him 
in  an  attempt  to  break  into  the  house  where  they  were  to  meet, 
for  the  purpose  of  slaying  them  all.  He  was  betrayed  by  an 
accomplice,  and  his  band  was  surrounded  by  a  company  of 
guards  at  their  trysting-place  in  Cato  Street,  and  arrested  after 
a  bloody  scuffle.  Thistlewood  and  several  of  his  accomplices 
were  very  properly  hung.  Abhorrence  for  their  atrocious  plot 
had  a  good  deal  of  effect  in  restraining  further  agitation. 

Just  before  the  "  Cato  Street   Conspiracy  "  had  been  frus- 
trated, the  old  king  George  HI.  died,  and  the  regent  ascended 

the  throne  under  the  name  of  George  IV.     It  was   ^  .       , 

°  Accession  of 

assuredly  not    from    any   merit    of   his    that    the  George  IV. 

national  troubles  bes^an  soon  after  to  die  down.   Need  of 

•         ,  1      r  reforms. 

The  fact  was  that  they  were  mainly  the  result  of 

famine  and  despair,  and  that  about  1820  there  was  a  marked 
recovery  in  trade  in  the  manufacturing  districts,  while  in  the 
countryside  the  farmers  and  labourers  had  succeeded  in 
adapting  themselves  in  some  degree  to  the  new  scale  of  prices 
for  agricultural  produce.  Riots  and  outrages  gradually  sub- 
sided, but  there  remained  a  strong  political  dislike  for  the 
Tory  cabinet  and  its  harsh  and  repressive  measures.  The 
middle  classes  had  begun  to  go  over  to  the  side  of  the  Whigs, 


62  ENGLAND  IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY. 

who  now,  for  the  first  time  since  the  outbreak  of  the  great 
French  war,  began  to  find  that  they  had  a  soHd  and  powerful 
backing  in  the  nation.  Men  had  wilhngly  consented  to  put 
aside  all  demands  for  constitutional  change  as  long  as  the 
struggle  with  Napoleon  lasted.  It  was  now  high  time  that  the 
projects  for  political  reform,  which  Pitt  had  sketched  out 
thirty  years  before,  should  be  taken  in  hand.  As  Pitt's  heirs 
in  the  Tory  party  showed  small  signs  of  carrying  them  out,  all 
those  who  were  anxious  to  see  them  brought  forward  joined 
the  other  camp. 

The  chief  of  these  burning  questions  was  the  Emancipation 
of  the  Catholics  from  political  disabilities — a  topic  which  had 
not  been  seriously  raised  since  1807 — and  the 
the^Tori^.  reform  of  the  House  of  Commons,  which  was 
growing  more  unrepresentative  of  the  nation 
every  day.  On  certain  other  points — such  as  Free  Trade,  the 
removal  of  the  protective  duties  placed  on  foreign  corn  and 
other  commodities,  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  British  colo- 
nies, the  reform  of  the  Poor  Laws — there  was  division  in 
the  Tory  camp :  the  older  generation  were  for  leaving  every- 
thing where  it  was :  the  younger  were  more  ready  to  move 
on.  In  face  of  a  vigorous  and  growing  opposition,  it  is 
astonishing  how  long  the  Liverpool  cabinet  succeeded  in  staving 
off  all  manner  of  reforms :  the  delay  was  only  rendered  pos- 
sible by  the  fact  that  the  House  of  Commons  so  grossly  mis- 
represented the  nation.  As  long  as  the  system  of  "rotten 
boroughs  "  went  on,  a  Government  supported  by  the  majority 
of  borough-mongers  could  defy  public  opinion  in  a  manner 
that  has  long  ceased  to  be  possible. 

It  is  a  notable  fact,  as  illustrating  the  politics  of  that  day, 
that  the  first  checks  to  the  policy  of  this  rigid  Tory  Govern- 
Q  IV      "^snt  came  not  on  any  great  question  of  reform, 

and  Queen  but  on  a  personal  matter  concerning  the  king. 
i.,aro  me.  George  IV.  had  been  separated  for  many  years 
from  his  unfortunate  wife,  Caroline  of  Brunswick.    Deserted  by 


TRIAL   OF   QUEEN   CAROLINE.  63 

her  husband,  she  had  fallen  into  an  unwise  and  undignified 
manner  of  life,  wandering  round  the  continent  with  a  train  of 
disreputable  foreign  attendants.  She  was  a  vain,  silly,  and 
vulgar  woman,  in  whom  no  one  could  have  felt  any  interest 
if  she  had  not  been  so  ill-treated  by  the  man  who  should  have 
been  her  protector.  When  George  IIL  died,  she  announced 
her  intention  of  returning  to  England  in  order  to  be  crowned 
along  with  her  husband.  The  king  looked  upon  her  approach 
with  dismay,  and  tried  to  frighten  her  away  with  threats  of 
cutting  off  her  income.  But  she  came  back  in  spite  of  him, 
whereupon  George  took  the  invidious  step  of  persuading  Lord 
Liverpool  to  allow  a  bill  for  her  divorce  to  be  brought  before 
Parliament.  His  own  conduct  had  been  so  disgraceful  that 
he  should  not  have  dared  to  attack  his  wife.  With  deep  feel- 
ings of  secret  shame  the  ministers  lent  themselves  to  this 
miserable  scheme.  A  long  parliamentary  inquiry  followed, 
which  led  to  no  conclusive  proofs  of  the  queen  having  been 
guilty  of  more  than  silly  vanity  and  indecorum.  The  Whig 
leaders  and  the  mob  of  London  took  up  her  cause,  and  meet- 
ings and  demonstrations  followed  in  quick  succession.  Dis- 
gusted at  their  position,  the  ministers  in  November,  1820, 
suddenly  dropped  their  bill  and  let  the  queen  go  free.  She 
started  a  violent  agitation  against  her  husband,  and  would 
have  caused  much  trouble  if  she  had  not  died  suddenly  in  the 
next  year. 

In  modern  days  a  ministry  would  resign  after  such  a  blow 
to  its   credit   as  the   cabinet  of    1820    had    sustained  in   the 
matter  of  the  queen's  trial.     Lord  Liverpool  and  chanees  in 
his  colleagues,  however,  clung  to  office,  but  for  the  Cabinet 
the  future  had  lost  the  complete  command  over  ^o\^c^n~^' 
Parliament    which    they  had  hitherto    possessed,  ning  minis- 
In   182 1  the  character  of  the  ministry  began  to  ^' 
change :  Addington  (Lord  Sidmouth),  who  had  been  mainly 
responsible  for  the  mismanagement  of  home  affairs,  resigned ; 
Lord   Castlereagh  in  the   next  year  committed  suicide  in  a 


64  ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 

moment  of  insanity  caused  by  overwork ;  several  other  of  the 
old  Tories  disappeared  from  office.  To  replace  them  Lord 
Liverpool  introduced  younger  men,  who  were  not  so  entirely 
reactionary  in  their  views,  and  were  ready  to  follow  the  teach- 
ing of  William  Pitt  in  his  earlier  days,  by  linking  the  name  of 
the  Tory  party  with  the  idea  of  domestic  reform.  The  chief 
of  these  were  Canning,  Huskisson,  and  Sir  Robert  Peel.  The 
first-named  statesman  succeeded  Castlereagh  as  foreign  secre- 
tary, and  promptly  carried  out  a  radical  change  in  our  European 
policy. 

Huskisson,  who  was  a  convinced  free-trader,  began  to  do 
his  best  to  get  rid  of  the  protective  duties  that  were  cramping 
Huskisson       English  commerce  and  manufactures.     His  great 
and  Free         principle  was  to  reduce  the  import  duties  on  all 
^^  ^*  raw  materials — such  as  wool  or  silk — which  were 

afterw^ards  worked  up  in  English  factories.  When  once  these 
commodities  came  in  unburdened  by  taxes,  their  increased 
cheapness  enabled  our  manufacturers  to  produce  their  fabrics 
at  a  rate  which  defied  foreign  competition.  Huskisson  would 
have  got  rid  of  the  corn-duties  also,  but  Tory  prejudice  foiled 
him. 

Peel,  though  not  yet  so  far  advanced  in  his  views  as  his  two 
colleagues,  did  admirable  work  as  home  secretary  in  the  direc- 
Peel  and  ^^°"  ^^  administrative  reform,  and  the  mitigation 

Criminal  of   the   unreasonable    harshness  of    the  criminal 

Law  e  orm.  |^^^  g^  ^  barbarous  survival  of  mediaeval  prac- 
tice, there  were  still  many  scores  of  offences  for  which  the 
death-penalty  was  prescribed  :  among  them  were  such  com- 
paratively insignificant  crimes  as  sheep-stealing,  shop-lifting, 
and  coining.  Peel  was  the  first  minister  of  the  Crown  who 
began  to  cut  down  this  dreadful  list.  He  still  left  the  gallows 
as  the  doom  of  those  guilty  of  forgery,  murderous  assaults, 
and  many  other  acts  which  are  now  sufficiently  punished  by 
penal  servitude,  but  struck  out  a  good  many  items  from  the 
appalling  total.     The  rest  were  all  removed  within  fifteen  years, 


FOREIGN   POLITICS   IN    1821.  65 

and  murder  and  treason  have  for  a  long  time  been  the  only 
offences  for  which  capital  punishment  is  retained. 

Canning's  work  at   the    Foreign  Office  demands   a  longer 
explanation.     Ever  since  18 15  the  continent  had  been  under 
the  control  of  the  autocratic  monarchs  who  had 
put  down  Napoleon.     They  lived  in  dread  of  a  |urope "  ^° 
recrudescence  of   the   revolutionary  ideas   which 
had  been   started  by  the  Jacobins  of  France,  and  governed 
their  subjects  with  a  very  tight  hand,  utterly  refusing  to  listen 
to  any  petitions  for  the  introduction  of  representative  govern- 
ment or  constitutional  reforms.     This  was  all  the  more  hard 
because  of  the  liberal  promises  which  they  had  made  to  their 
peoples,  when  they  were  rousing  them  in  181 2-1 3  to  join  in 
the  general  crusade  against   Bonaparte  and   the   Continental 
System.     The  nations  felt  that  they  had  been  scurvily  treated 
by  their  rulers,  and  from  Poland  to  Portugal  the  whole  con- 
tinent was  full  of  ferment  and  unrest.     There  were  plots,  con- 
spiracies, and  agitations  in  every  quarter,  some  aiming  at  the 
overturning  of  autocratic  government  and  the  obtaining  of  a  free 
constitution,  others   more  national  in  character,  and  directed 
against  the  ruthless  cutting  up  of  ancient  states  and  peoples 
which  had  taken  place  at  the  Congress  of  Vienna  in  1 8 1 4-1 5 .    In 
Germany  and  Spain  the  former  idea  prevailed,   in  Italy  and 
Poland  the  latter.     The  Emperor  of  Russia  con- 
ceived the    idea  of  joining  all  the  monarchs  of  TJlf^j^     ?. 
Europe  in  a  league   against    reform  and  liberal 
ideas,  and  framed  the  celebrated  "  Holy  Alliance  "  in  conjunc- 
tion with  Francis  of  Austria  and  Frederick  William  of  Prussia. 
The  restored  Bourbons   of   France,  Spain,  and  Naples  were 
wholly  in  agreement  with  them. 

This  reactionary  confederacy  had  dominated  Europe  from 
1815  to  1822.     Castlereagh,  while  controlling  the 
foreign  policy  of   England,  had  refused  to  join   CasUereaeh 
the  "  Holy  AlHance  "  ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  he 
had    done  nothing   to   hinder   its  work  or   to   mark    English 


66  ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

disapproval  of  its  narrow  and  despotic  principles.  Continental 
Liberals  had  always  hoped  for  moral  if  not  for  tangible  aid 
from  free  and  constitutional  England,  and  had  failed  to  get  it. 
We  had  looked  on  while  the  troops  of  Austria  invaded  Italy, 
and  put  down  the  new  Constitution  which  had  been  unwillingly 
granted  by  King  Ferdinand  of  Naples  (182 1),  and  while  the 
armies  of  Louis  XVIILwere  being  directed  against  the  Spanish 
Liberals. 

When  Canning  replaced  Castlereagh  at  the  Foreign  Office 
(1822),  this  period  of  passive  acquiescence  came  to  an  end, 
Cannine-'s  ^^^  English  influence  was  used  against  the  alliance 
new  foreign  of  the  despots.  It  was  too  late  to  save  Spain, 
policy.  which  was  overrun  by  the  French  in  the  spring 

of  1823,  but  Portugal  was  preserved  from  the  same  fate  by  the 
energetic  threats  which  were  made  against  French  intervention 
there.  The  independence  of  the  Spanish  colonies  in  America, 
which  had  long  been  in  revolt  against  the  misgovernment  of 
the  mother-country,  was  recognized.  In  the  east  of  Europe, 
where  the  Greeks  had  rebelled  against  the  Sultan  after  four 
centuries  of  miserable  oppression,  Canning  used  all  his  influence 
in  their  aid.  Money  and  volunteers  from  England  were  per- 
mitted to  make  their  way  to  the  ^gean.  Among  the  English 
*'  Phil-Hellenes "  the  most  notable  were  the  daring  seaman 
Lord  Cochrane,  and  the  poet  Byron,  who  roused  himself  from 
a  life  of  idleness  and  luxury  in  Italy  to  give  his  aid  to  an 
ancient  people  in  distress.  He  died  of  fever  not  long  after  his 
arrival  in  Greece ;  but  his  stirring  poems  and  his  excellent 
example  did  much  to  strengthen  the  wave  of  feeling  in  Western 
Europe  which  ultimately  secured  the  freedom  of  Hellas. 
Canning,  meanwhile,  did  all  that  he  could  short  of  declaring 
war  to  bring  pressure  on  Sultan  Mahmood,  and  to  compel  him 
to  recognize  the  independence  of  his  revolted  subjects.  He 
was  prevented  from  going  further  by  the  uncertain  attitude  of 
the  other  powers,  and  especially  of  France  and  Russia,  who 
could  not  make  up  their  minds  whether  to  regard  Mahmood 


DEATH   OF  CANNING.  67 

as  a   legitimate  monarch  endeavouring  to  suppress  Liberals, 

and  therefore  a  friend,  or  as  a  Mahometan  persecutor,  outside 

the  pale  of  a  "  Holy  Alliance  "  of  Christian  kings. 

In  February  1827  Lord  Liverpool  was  stricken  down  with 

paralysis,  and  the  king,  after  some  hesitation,  offered  Canning 

the  vacant  post  of  prime  minister.     He  accepted  ,      ,  ,  . 

J  1  •  1     r  1  r   1        ,  1    Lord  Liver- 

it,  and  promptly  got  rid  of  the  remnant  of  the  old  pool  retires 

Tories  who  had  still  clung  to  office  under  his  pre-  —Death  of 
decessor.  Their  places  were  filled  with  the  more 
enlightened  members  of  the  party.  It  was  hoped  that  a  period 
of  progress  and  prosperity,  as  marked  as  that  of  Pitt's  famous 
rule  in  1784-92,  was  about  to  commence,  for  the  new  premier 
had  great  schemes  on  foot  both  at  home  and  abroad.  But 
Canning  had  hardly  time  to  settle  down  into  office  when  he 
was  carried  off  by  an  attack  of  dysentery  (August  8,  1827). 
His  death,  only  five  months  after  he  had  reached  the  position 
in  which  he  had  the  power  to  carry  out  his  policy,  was  a  most 
unfortunate  event  both  for  England  and  for  the  Tory  party. 
His  ministry  continued  in  office  for  a  few  months  under  the 
nominal  premiership  of  Lord  Gooderich,  and  then  broke  up  for 
want  of  a  master  mind  to  keep  them  together. 

The  king,  whose  sympathies  were  all  with  reaction  and  the 
older  Tories,  invited  the  Duke  of  Wellington  to  take  Canning's 
place.      A  more  unfortunate  appointment  could  vVellineton 
not  have  been  made  :  the  great  general  proved  to  Prime 
be  a  very  poor  politician.     Personally,  he  had  no  ^^^^ster. 
sympathy  with  his  predecessor's  views ;  he  believed  in  keeping 
things   where   they    were   in    domestic    politics.       Free-trade, 
Catholic  emancipation,  and  parliamentary  reform  were  as  dis- 
tasteful to  him  as  they  had  been  to  Addington  or  Castlereagh. 
In  foreign  policy  his  rooted  principle  was  a  dislike  of  conti- 
nental Liberals;    he  had  seen   a  great   deal  of  the  Spanish 
reformers  in  1809-13,  and  had  imbibed  a  great  contempt  for 
them  and  all  their  compeers  in  other  lands.     The  duke  was 
thoroughly    honest    and   upright    in    all    his    principles    and 


68  ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

prejudices,  and  he  came  on  the  scene  with  a  splendid  reputation 
for  loyalty  and  patriotism.  But  he  had  never  learnt  the  art  of 
managing  Parliament,  of  facing  a  determined  opposition,  or 
keeping  together  a  party  which  consisted  of  two  sections  of 
divergent  views.  He  very  soon  turned  out  of  his  ministry 
Huskisson,  and  the  rest  of  Canning's  followers,  replacing  them 
by  Tories  of  the  old  reactionary  breed.  His  first  important 
action  in  foreign  policy  was  to  abandon  his  predecessor's  sup- 
port of  the  Greek  insurgents,  though  England  had  been  fully 
committed  to  their  cause. 

In  the  summer  of  1827,  while  Canning  still  lived,  an 
English  fleet  had  been  sent  to  the  Levant  with  directions  to 
bring  pressure  to  bear  on  the  Turkish  army  in  the 
Navartno^  °  Peloponnesus,  and  force  its  commandant,  Ibrahim 
Pasha,  to  agree  to  an  armistice  with  the  Greeks. 
Admiral  Codrington  interpreted  his  orders  in  a  stringent  sense, 
forbade  the  Pasha  to  move,  and  when  he  continued  the  usual 
policy  of  massacre  sailed  into  Navarino  Bay  and  blew  to 
pieces  the  large  Turko-Egyptian  fleet  which  was  lying  there 
(October  13,  1827).  He  was  given  unstinted  applause  by  the 
English  nation,  but  not  by  the  prime  minister,  who  disavowed 
his  action,  styled  the  battle  of  Navarino  ''a  most  untoward 
event,"  and  refused  to  take  any  further  action  against  the  Porte. 
Russia  stepped  in  when  Wellington  withdrew :  the  new  Czar, 
Nicholas  I.,  sent  an  army  across  the  Balkans,  forced  the  Sultan 
to  recognize  the  independence  of  Greece,  and  paid  himself  by 
confiscating  a  large  sHce  of  Turkish  territory  (August,  1828). 

Throughout  the  three  years  during  which  he  held  office 
(1828-30),  the  "  Iron  Duke  "  did  little  to  justify  his  reputation 
Welling-ton  ^^^  firmness  and  steadfast  purpose.  There  can 
as  a  poli-  be  no  doubt  that  his  own  inclination  would  have 
tician.  been  to  avoid  all  manner  of  constitutional  change, 

and  keep  things  exactly  as  they  stood.  But  he  showed  an 
unexpected  faculty  for  yielding  when  he  was  attacked  and 
worried  by  the  opposition.     When  his  plans  were  defeated  in 


CATHOLIC    EMANCIPATION   GRANTED.  69 

the  House  of  Commons  he  did  not  resign,  as  most  ministers 
with  a  parUamentary  training  would  have  done,  but  retained 
office,  and  often  ended  by  allowing  measures  of  which  he  dis- 
approved to  become  law.  As  has  been  well  remarked  by  one 
of  his  critics,  "  He  treated  politics  as  if  they  were  military  cam- 
paigns, and  when  beaten  out  of  his  position  did  not  throw  up 
the  game,  but  gave  way,  and  only  retired  on  to  another  similar 
position  in  the  rear."  This  line  of  conduct  had,  to  the  outside 
observer,  every  appearance  of  weakness,  and  looked  like  an 
undignified  clinging  to  office.  The  duke,  however,  was  honestly 
convinced  that  he  was  necessary  to  the  State,  and  only  retained 
the  premiership  because  he  thought  that  his  resignation  would 
open  the  way  to  revolution  and  civil  strife. 

His  first  retreat  was  carried  out  after  a  dispute  on  a  reli- 
gious question.     The    "  Test   Act "   and   "  Corporation  Act," 

which  obliged  members  of  corporations  and  office-  ^        ,    r  .. 

°  ^  •  r  Repeal  of  the 

holders  under  the  Crown  to  make  a  profession  of  Test  Act  and 

conformity  to  the  Church  of  England,  had  long  ^j^^^^^^^fP^^^" 
been  a  dead  letter.  Dissenters  of  all  sorts  had 
been  allowed  to  evade  their  provisions.  Yet  when  it  was  pro- 
posed to  abolish  these  relics  of  seventeenth-century  bigotry, 
the  duke  made  a  great  show  of  resistance.  The  Whigs,  how- 
ever, succeeded  in  passing  a  resolution  against  them  in  the 
Commons  :  thereupon  Wellington  suddenly  yielded,  gave  the 
measure  the  support  of  the  ministry,  and  allowed  the  Acts  to 
be  repealed  (1828). 

His  next  show  of  weakness  was  even  more  startling.     For 
some  years   the   question   of  Catholic  Emancipation,  the   old 
bugbear  of  George  HI.,  had  been  much  obtruded  r^^jj^j^^, 
on  public  notice,  mainly  by  an  agitation  in  Ireland,  Emanci- 
headed  by  the  ablest  Irishman  whom  the  century  Potion, 
has  produced.      The  grievance  of  the  Irish  Catholics  was  a 
perfectly  legitimate  one :  they  had  assented  to  the  Union  in 
1800,  because  Pitt  had  promised  that  they  should  be  given  in 
the  United  Kingdom  the  same  rights  as  their  Protestant  fellow- 


70  ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

subjects.  Pitt  had  failed  to  redeem  his  pledge,  owing  to  no 
fault  of  his  own,  but  to  the  old  king's  obstinacy.  Now  that 
George  III.  was  dead,  there  was  no  reason  why  the  promise 
given  in  1800  should  not  be  fulfilled:  no  one  could  believe 
that  George  IV.  had  any  conscientious  objection  to  it — unlike 
his  father,  he  had  no  conscience  at  all.  Nevertheless,  the  Tory 
party,  with  the  exception  of  Canning  and  his  friends,  had 
refused  to  take  up  Pitt's  engagement  to  the  Catholics.  Wel- 
lington, himself  an  Anglo-Irish  Protestant  by  birth,  had  been 
as  unbending  as  Liverpool  or  Addington. 

In  1823  O'Connell  had  founded  a  league  called  the  "  Catholic 
Association,"  to  bring  pressure  on  the  English  Government. 

It  was  a  powerful,  well-ort^anized  body,  which 
O'Connell  ,     ,  ,  ,  •  j  , 

and  the  worked  by  proclamations  and  monster  demonstra- 

Catholic  tions  in  the  usual  Irish  style;  it  even  collected  a 

kind  of  impost  called  the  "  Catholic  Rent,"  which 
was  paid  with  a  good  deal  more  regularity  than  the  king's 
taxes.  Nominally  suppressed  by  law  in  1825,  it  was  still  in 
full  vigour  in  1828.  O'Connell  was  a  man  of  splendid  elo- 
quence and  ready  wit,  with  considerable  organizing  power. 
He  was  as  completely  the  master  of  the  Association  as  Parnell 
in  later  days  was  of  the  "  Land  League  "  ;  but  he  set  his  face 
against  outrages  and  worked  wholly  by  moral  suasion.  With 
all  Ireland  at  his  back,  and  the  sui)port  of  the  Whig  party 
in  England,  he  was  a  most  formidable  power.  To  show  his 
strength  he  had  himself  elected  as  Member  of  Parliament 
for  County  Clare,  though  he  could  not  of  course  take  his 
seat  so  long  as  the  old  laws  against  Catholics  were  still  in 
force. 

Confronted  with  this  great  agitation,  continually  harassed  by 

the  Whigs,  and  opposed  by  the  Canningite  wing  of  his  own 

party,  Wellington  for  some  time  refused  to  listen 

^^ij"5o^"     to  any  proposal  for  Catholic  Emancipation.     But 

suddenly,  in  the  spring  of  1829,  his  resistance 

collapsed;    to   the   surprise  and  disgust   of  his    own  bigoted 


O'CONNELL   AND    REPEAL.  71 

followers,  he  announced  that  he  had  become  convinced  that 
further  resistance  would  only  lead  to  civil  war  in  Ireland,  and 
that,  rather  than  force  matters  to  extremity,  the  ministry  would 
bring  in  a  bill  placing  the  Catholics  in  the  same  position  in 
matters  political  as  members  of  the  Established  Church.  Every 
post  in  the  State  was  thrown  open  to  them  save  those  of  King, 
Regent,  Lord  Chancellor,  or  Viceroy  of  Ireland.  This 
measure  was  passed  by  the  aid  of  the  Whigs  and  the  Can- 
ningites.  A  great  proportion  of  the  Duke's  old  Tory  friends 
in  both  houses  voted  against  it ;  for  the  future  they  distrusted 
Wellington,  and  could  not  be  relied  on  to  vote  solidly  at  his 
order. 

Nothing  could  have  been  more  calculated  to  encourage  the 
duke's  adversaries  than  this  display  of  weakness  on  his  part. 
In    Ireland    O'Connell   at   once  started    another  -pj^^  «<  j^g_ 
agitation,  this  time  in  favour  of  the  dissolution  of  peal " 
the  Union  of  1800—"  Repeal "  as  it  was  popularly  ^^^^^^^o"- 
styled  in   1830,  Home-Rule  as  we  should  call  it  now.     For 
nearly  a  score  of  years  this  movement  was  to  convulse  the 
sister  island ;  meanwhile  O'Connell  himself  appeared  at  West- 
minster with  a  following  of  fifty  Irish  Catholic  members  ready 
to  make  trouble  for  English  ministries,  Tory  or  Whig,  in  every 
possible  way. 

That  Welhngton  retained  office  for  more  than  a  year  after 
he  had  conceded  Catholic  Emancipation,  was  only  due  to  the 
fact  that  in  respect  for  his  personal  character  and  the  great 
things  he  had  done  for  England  in  1808-15,  his  adversaries 
refrained  from  pressing  him  to  extremity.  All  his  measures  in 
1829-30  were  weak  and  ill-judged;  he  even  abandoned  our 
Portuguese  allies,  whom  Canning  had  saved  in  1826,  and 
allowed  Dom  Miguel,  a  usurper  of  most  reactionary  views,  to 
be  estabUshed  as  king  in  their  country.  But  the  overthrow  of 
the  ministry  was  deferred  till  November,  1830,  before  which 
date  there  was  a  general  change  in  English  politics  caused  by 
outside  events. 


72  ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEEiNTH   CENTURY. 

On  June  26,  1830,  George  IV.  had  died  in  his  sixty-eighth 
year,  unregretted  by  any  single  class  of  his  subjects.     It  was  a 
great  boon  to  the  nation  that  his  successor  was  a 
■^Jj^^^°"y     prince  of  a  very  different  stamp. 

William,  Duke  of  Clarence,  the  king's  next 
surviving  brother,  who  now  ascended  the  throne  under  the 
name  of  William  IV.,  was  a  simjjle,  good-hearted,  genial  old 
man,  who  had  served  with  credit  in  the  navy,  and  had  long 
occupied  the  honorary  post  of  Lord  High  Admiral.  His 
intelligence  was  limited,  but  his  intentions  were  good,  and 
no  one  could  dislike  or  despise  him.  The  only  thing  against 
him  was  an  eccentricity  which  sometimes  led  him  into  absurd 
speeches  and  actions,  and  made  men  fear  that  he  was  tainted 
with  the  insanity  of  his  father,  George  III.  Fortunately  their 
dread  turned  out  to  be  unfounded ;  he  kept  his  head  and  made 
an  admirable  constitutional  king.  It  was  of  enormous  benefit 
to  the  nation  as  well  as  the  monarchy  that  he  was  not  a  party 
man  like  his  brother,  and  got  on  with  the  Whigs  as  well  as 
with  the  Tories.  He  had  married  late  in  life  (1818)  and  had 
two  daughters,  but  both  of  them  died  in  infancy,  so  that  the 
succession  to  the  throne  now  passed  to  his  ten-year-old  niece 
Alexandrina  Victoria,  the  only  child  of  Edward  Duke  of  Kent, 
the  fourth  son  of  George  III. 

During  the  very  week   in  which  William   IV,  ascended  the 

throne  the  political  horizon   of  Europe  grew   overcast.     The 

domination  of  the  "  Holy  Alliance  "  was  suddenly 

Europe  in        threatened  by  popwlar , risings  in  every  region  of 

1830— Louis  .  ^     ^    ^  1  1  r    ^r 

Philippe  the  comment,  the  natural  result  01   riiteen  years 

*'  King  of  Qf  tlesi)otic  rule,  during  which  every  national  and 
the  French."  /    ,        ,  •  1     ,    ,  ,     ,    ^ 

constitutional    aspiration    had    been    crushed   by 

brute  force.  The  trouble  began  in  Paris,  where  the  narrow- 
minded  and  reactionary  Charles  X.  was  expelled  by  a  revolt 
ill  which  the  army  joined  the  mob.  France  did  not  become  a 
red  repul)lic,  as  many  had  feared,  but  merely  changed  its 
dynasty  ;   for  Louis  rhilipi)e,  Duke  of  Orleans,  a  very  astute 


THE   WHIGS   IN   OFFICE.  73 

intriguer,  succeeded  in  putting  himself  at  the  head  of  the  move- 
ment and  was  saluted  as  constitutional "  King  of  the  French  " — 
the  old  title,  "  King  of  France,"  was  dropped  as  savouring  of  feu- 
dalism. From  Paris  the  wave  of  revolution  spread  right  and  left : 
there  followed  a  vigorous  rebellion  in  Poland  against  the  des- 
potism of  Czar  Nicholas  I.,  a  rising  of  the  Belgians  against  their 
enforced  union  with  Holland,  insurrections  in  Spain  and  Por- 
tugal, and  troubles  of  a  less  desperate  sort  in  Germany  and  Italy. 
In  the  midst  of  these  foreign  complications  the  Wellington 
ministry  at  last  came  to  an  end.  The  death  of  the  late  king 
was  followed    by   a   general    election,    in    which 

more  than  fifty  seats  in  the  Commons  were  lost  Jl^^l  °^ 

\A/ elling'ton  s 
by  the  old  Tory  party.     The  fact  was  that  the  ministry— 

duke's  weak  policy  had  disgusted  his    own   sup-  '^^^  Whigs 

11  r  1  1  return  to 

porters,  and  even  the  knot  of  borough-mongers  office. 

who  were  its  firmest  adherents  had  not  exerted 

themselves  very  ardently  in  his  cause.     In  the  English  counties, 

where  popular  feeling  w^as  able  to  express  itself  better  than 

in  the  boroughs,  more  than  sixty  out  of  the  eighty-two  members 

returned   were   Whigs.      When   the   new    parliament   met   in 

November   the    ministers    were    defeated    by   a    majority    of 

twenty-nine   on   the   first    contentious    topic    that    came    up. 

Wellington  resigned,  and  the  king,  in  due  constitutional  form, 

sent  for  the  head  of  the  Whig  party,  and  entrusted  him  with 

the  formation  of   a   cabinet.     The  new   Prime  Minister  was 

Charles  Earl  Grey,  the  last  survivor  of  the  old  Whig  chiefs 

who  had  fought  out  the  long  struggle  with  the  younger  Pitt. 

He  had  been  Foreign  Secretary  in  the  Grenville  cabinet  of 

1807,  but  nearly  all  his  colleagues  were  younger  men  w^ho  had 

never  before  held  office.     The  only  other  members  indeed  of 

the  ministry  who  had  any  administrative  experience  were  three 

of  Canning's  followers,  who   now   consented  to  join  the  Whig 

party — Lords  Melbourne,  Palmerston,  and  Gooderich.     Their 

Lord   Chancellor  was  Brougham,  an  eloquent   but    eccentric 

orator,  who    had  shown  himself  formidable  in   attack   while 


74  ENGLAND   IN    THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURV. 

Tory  cabinets  were  in  power,  but   proved  far  too  flighty  and 
capricious  as  a  responsible  minister  of  the  Crown. 

Lord  Grey  was  a  man  whom  age  had  rendered  cautious  and 
moderate ;  he  succeeded  in  carrying  out  the  long-needed 
reforms,  for  which  the  nation  had  been  waiting 
since  1815,  with  the  minimum  of  friction  and 
trouble.  A  less  judicious  leader  might  have  provoked  very 
serious  political  strife,  for  all  the  elements  of  discord  were 
present  in  the  situation.  The  Tory  party  commanded  a  great 
majority  in  the  House  of  Lords,  and  controlled  a  large  and  un- 
scrupulous minority  in  the  Lower  House :  the  seats  of  so  many 
representatives  of  rotten  boroughs  were  imperilled  by  the 
impending  reform  of  the  Commons,  that  they  were  naturally 
full  of  impotent  and  factious  wrath.  Lord  Grey  had  an- 
nounced, on  accepting  office,  that  he  intended  to  make  Par- 
liamentary Reform  the  main  feature  of  his  administration,  so 
his  adversaries  had  fair  notice  of  his  intentions. 

The  condition  of  the  House  of  Commons,  considered  as  a 
representative  body,  had  been  growing  more  and  more  of 
Necessity  of  ^  disgraceful  anomaly  for  two  hundred  years. 
Parliament-  There  had  been  practically  no  change  in  its  con- 
ary  Reform,  gtitution  since  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth ; 
scores  of  boroughs  that  had  been  flourishing  market  towns 
or  seaports  in  the  middle  ages  had  sunk  into  decayed  villages 
— some,  like  Gatton  and  Old  Sarum,  had  dwindled  down  to  a 
couple  of  houses.  On  the  other  hand,  great  industrial  centres 
like  Leeds  or  Birmingham  had  no  representative  whatever. 
In  the  shires  things  were  almost  as  ridiculous — the  great 
counties  of  Yorkshire  and  Lancashire,  reckoning  their  in- 
habitants by  the  million,  had  the  same  two  members  as 
Rutland.  It  is  hard  to  see  how  the  survival  of  the  antiquated 
system  could  have  been  seriously  defended,  save  by  the 
landowners  who  dominated  "  rotten  boroughs  "  of  the  type  of 
Old  Sarum,  or  the  capitalists  who  liked  to  buy  a  seat  instead 
of    facing    troublesome    masses    of    constituents.      Pitt    had 


PARLIAMENTARY    REFORM.  75 

introduced  a  Reform  Bill  as  far  back  as  1785,  but  it  had  been 
thrown  out  by  a  factious  combination  of  the  Whigs  and  the 
borough-mongers.  Since  1792  the  old  Tory  party  had  been 
almost  continuously  in  office,  and  had  always  rejected  any 
proposals  for  reform  :  the  fact  was  that  the  existing  anomalous 
state  of  affairs  suited  them,  because  the  large  majority  of  the 
rotten  seats  were  in  the  hands  of  their  supporters. 

Every  year  since  182 1  some  Whig  leader  had  broached  the 
topic  in  the  Commons,  and  every  time  his  project  had  been 
summarily  thrown  out.  Public  opinion  had  been  q  .,  r 
getting  more  excited  on  the  point  at  each  rejec-  the  Reform 
tion.  The  middle  classes,  which  had  been  steadily  ^&^^^"°^ 
Tory  throughout  the  Great  War,  had  begun  to  pass  over  whole- 
sale to  the  Whig  party,  under  the  reactionary  Liverpool  regime^ 
and  the  Duke  of  Wellington's  mismanagement  had  finished 
their  conversion.  It  was  intolerable  that  all  progressive  legis- 
lation should  be  stopped  because  a  few  scores  of  borough- 
mongers  commanded  enough  votes  to  hold  the  balance  in  the 
House  of  Commons.  It  was  ludicrous  that  a  householder  in 
Winchelsea  or  Appleby  should  have  the  privilege  of  choosing  a 
member,  while  a  householder  in  Liverpool  or  Leeds  should 
not.  The  agitation  which  was  on  foot  in  1816-20  was  very 
different  from  that  which  now  prevailed  in  1830-32.  The 
former  had  its  roots  in  famine  and  poverty ;  it  had  only  influ- 
enced the  labouring  classes,  and  had  been  led  by  a  few  hot- 
headed demagogues.  The  latter  was  essentially  a  middle-class 
movement ;  its  leaders  were  the  merchants  and  bankers  of  the 
great  towns  which  were  denied  representation.  It  had  the  support 
of  the  masses,  who  hoped  that  a  more  representative  Parliament 
would  lead  to  enlightened  social  legislation  for  their  benefit, 
but  the  real  strength  of  the  agitation  lay  in  the  well-to-do  house- 
holders of  the  towns.  Hence  it  was  comparatively  orderly  in 
its  progress ;  it  was  only  in  a  few  places  like  Bristol,  where 
special  local  circumstances  embittered  feeling,  that  riot  and 
disorder  followed  the  campaign  in  favour  of  Reform. 


76  ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

In  March,  1831,  Lord  John  Russell,  a  scion  of  the  great 

Whig  house  of  the  Dukes  of  Bedford,  introduced  the  Reform 

^,     „  ^  Bill  in  its  first  shape.     It  soon  became  evident 

The  Reform      ,,...,.. 

Bill  passed       that  the  mmisterial  majority  was  not  large  enough 

in  the  House  to  carry  the  measure  :  though  the  representatives 
of  Commons.      r  /-         •     1        r   1 

01  five  sixths  01  the  great  constituencies  voted  for 

it,  the  members  for  the  rotten  boroughs  were  so  numerous  and 
so  resolved  not  to  sanction  their  own  destruction,  that  the 
second  reading  of  the  bill  was  only  carried  by  one  vote  (302 
to  301)  in  the  fullest  house  that  had  ever  met.  Seeing  that 
they  could  not  hope  to  finish  the  business  with  such  a  small 
majority,  Lord  Grey  and  his  colleagues  offered  to  resign  ;  the 
king  refused  to  receive  their  resignation,  but  dissolved  Parlia- 
ment instead,  to  give  the  nation  its  opportunity  of  renewing  or 
refusing  its  mandate  to  the  Whig  party.  The  election  was 
carried  out  in  the  midst  of  a  tremendous  agitation,  unparalleled 
in  the  history  of  the  nation ;  it  ended,  as  might  have  been 
expected,  in  the  ministers  sweeping  the  whole  country  and 
obtaining  a  decisive  majority  of  136.  In  September  the  great 
bill  was  reintroduced,  and  passed  all  its  three  readings  in  the 
Commons  with  ease. 

The  resistance  of  the  Tories  had  now  to  be  transferred  to 
the  House  of  Lords,  in  which  they  were  omnipotent.  Pitt  and 
Thrown  out  ^^^^  successors  had  almost  swamped  the  upper 
by  the  House  chamber  by  their  lavish  creations  of  peers  during 
°  °^  ^"  the  last  forty  years.  Not  gauging  at  its  full 
strength  the  determination  of  the  country  to  have  the  bill 
passed,  the  Lords  threw  it  out  by  a  majority  of  41  (October, 

1831). 

The  winter  of  1831-32  was  spent  in  furious  agitation  against 

„.  ,        ,         the   House    of  Lords.      Meeting   after  meetinfr 
Violent  de-  ,    ,  ,  ^    ,  i       r    ,  , 

monstrations  attended  by  scores  of  thousands  ot  the  members 

against  the      of  "  Political  Unions,"   "National  Unions,"   and 

other    such     bodies,    asserted    their    desire    for 

"  The  Bill,  the  whole  Bill,  and  nothing  but  the  Bill."     The 


THE  CRISIS   OF  MAY,    1832.  77 

advanced  wing  of  the  Whig  party,  who  were  just  beginning  to 
call  themselves  "  Radicals,"  began  to  agitate  for  the  abolition 
of  hereditary  titles  and  the  destruction  of  the  Upper  House. 
The  results  of  the  effervescence  of  popular  feeling  were  shown 
when  the  cabinet  once  more  introduced  their  bill ;  it  passed 
rapidly  through  the  Commons,  and  after  a  hot  debate  in  the 
House  of  Lords  its  second  reading  was  carried  by  a  small 
majority  (April  14,  1832). 

But  the  Whigs  had  not  yet  completed  their  victory.  Instead 
of  openly  throwing  out  the  bill,  the  Tory  peers  tried  another 
device  :  they  proposed  to  mutilate  it  by  post- 
poning the  clauses  which  disfranchised  the  rotten  ^^g  Lords  to 
boroughs,  without  which  the  bill  was  practically  mutilate  the 
useless.  When  this  side  blow  was  successful  in 
the  Lords,  Grey  promptly  resigned  and  challenged  the  opposi- 
tion to  take  over  the  management  of  affairs  if  they  dared.  The 
king  sent  for  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  and  invited  him  to  form 
a  Tory  cabinet.  For  seven  days  the  Iron  Duke  contemplated 
the  possibility  of  facing  the  angry  nation,  and  sounded  his 
party  as  to  their  willingness  to  take  the  risk.  During  that 
week  the  nation  was  on  the  brink  of  civil  war ;  many  of  the 
more  hot-headed  leaders  of  the  Whig  party  made  preparations 
for  arming  the  members  of  the  Reform  associations  and  march- 
ing on  London.  Others,  with  greater  ingenuity,  organized  a 
run  on  the  Bank  of  England,  in  the  hope  that  the  enemy  would 
not  dare  to  face  a  financial  as  well  as  a  political  crisis.  "  To 
stop  the  duke,  go  for  gold  "  was  the  word  passed  round  among 
the  merchants  of  London  (May  8-15,  1832). 

Fortunately  for  the  peace  of  the  realm,  Wellington  shrank 
from  the  responsibility  of  accepting  office.     He 
found  that  it  was  very  doubtful  if  the  army  could  J^uggs^to" 
be  trusted  to  act  against  the  people.     His  Tory  take  office- 
friends  showed  a  general  reluctance  to  accept  the  carried 
posts  in  his  projected  cabinet.    Finally,  he  returned 
to  the  king  and  advised  him  to  send  again  for  Lord  Grey,  as 


78  ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

no  alternative  was  possible.  The  Whig  statesman  would  not 
return  to  power  till  he  was  granted  a  written  promise  that,  if 
the  House  of  Lords  persisted  in  its  opposition  to  Reform,  the 
king  would  create  new  peers  in  sufficient  numbers  to  swamp 
all  resistance.  This  threat  had  its  effect ;  to  prevent  its 
being  put  in  force,  Wellington  and  several  scores  more  of 
Tory  peers  solemnly  marched  out  of  the  House  when  the 
bill  was  again  sent  up  from  the  Commons.  In  their  absence 
it  was  allowed  to  pass  by  a  considerable  majority  (June 
4,  1832). 

The  details  of  the  bill  demand  a  word  of  notice.  It  dis- 
franchised entirely  no  less  than  fifty-six  "  rotten  boroughs," 
The  redistri-  ^^"^  ^^  which  had  more  than  2000  inhabitants. 
bution  of  It  deprived   of  one   member   each   thirty   small 

^^^  ®*  towns  which  had  hitherto  owned  two  representa- 

tives. This  gave  a  total  of  143  seats  to  be  disposed  of  among 
the  new  centres  of  population.  London  got  ten  of  them,  new 
boroughs  being  created  for  Marylebone,  Greenwich,  Lambeth, 
Finsbury,  and  the  Tower  Hamlets.  Twenty-two  large  towns, 
such  as  Liverpool,  Manchester,  Birmingham,  and  Newcastle, 
received  two  members  each.  Twenty-one  places  of  secondary 
size  were  allotted  one  each.  The  more  populous  counties 
were  cut  up  into  divisions,  to  which  sixty-five  members  were 
given.  Eight  new  borough  members  were  created  in  Scotland ; 
in  Ireland  (where  the  existing  arrangements  only  dated  back  to 
1 800)  there  was  hardly  any  need  of  change. 

At  the  same  time  the  franchise  was  made  uniform  all  over 

the  United  Kingdom  ;  before  1832  every  borough  had  its  own 

^,  rules.     In  the  towns,  the  power  to  vote  was  given 

The  new  ,  ,     ,  ,  •  r   u 

borough  and    to  every  householder  occupymg  a  tenement  01  the 

county  value  of  ;^io  or  over.     In  the  counties  the  terms 

granted  were  less  liberal ;  to  the  freeholders,  who 

possessed   the    franchise   before,  there  were  added   as  voters 

all  copyholders  and  leaseholders  holding  lands  to  the  annual 

value  of  ;£io,  and   tenants-at-will   of  ;£5o   holdings.      This 


DETAILS   OF   THE   REFORM    BILL.  79 

arrangement  left  the  shopkeepers  masters  in  the  towns,  and 
the  farmers  in  the  countryside.  The  artisans  in  the  one,  the 
agricultural  labourers  in  the  other,  were  still  left  without  the 
franchise,  and  had  to  wait  the  one  class  thirty  and  the  other 
fifty  years  before  obtaining  it. 


CHAPTER  V. 

FROM  THE  GREAT  REFORM  BILL  TO  THE  CRIMEAN  WAR. 
1832-54. 

The  passage  of  Lord  Grey's  Reform  Bill  is  the  central  point  of 
the  political  history  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Never  again 
Fears  ex-  ^^^  more  than  fifty  years  were  men's  passions  to 
cited  by  the  run  so  high ;  the  unrest  caused  by  the  Chartist 
e  orm  1.  agitation  in  1838-48  was  a  mere  nothing  compared 
to  the  excitement  in  1830-32.  The  only  time  that  can  be 
compared  to  those  troubled  years  is  the  short  period  in  1886, 
when  Mr.  Gladstone's  Home  Rule  Bill  was  in  the  air,  and  the 
Liberal  party  was  bursting  asunder.  This  later  struggle  only 
occupied  a  few  months,  but  Lord  Grey's  battle  with  the  Tories 
had  covered  nearly  three  years.  If  protracted  a  little  longer, 
it  would  probably  have  led  to  the  abolition  of  the  House  of 
Lords  and  many  other  sudden  and  destructive  changes.  To 
some  people  the  time-honoured  constitution  of  England  seemed 
in  danger ;  they  prophesied  that  the  Radicals  would  sweep  the 
Whigs  in  their  train,  and  carry  universal  suffrage,  vote  by 
ballot,  and  the  whole  programme  of  complete  democracy  the 
moment  that  the  great  bill  had  passed.  There  were  even 
persons  who  made  wagers  that  the  United  Kingdom  would 
cease  to  be  a  monarchy  before  ten  years  were  out. 

Nothing  could  have  been  more  ill-founded  than  these  fears ; 


RESULTS   OF   THE   REFORM   BILL.  8i 

when  once  the  Reform  Bill  was  passed  the  political  horizon 
grew  clear,  and  for  the  next  twenty  years  the  only 
really  important  topics  in  politics  were  matters  of  Its  actual 
social  and  economic  reform,  such  as  the  abolition  Political 
of  negro  slavery  in  the  colonies,  the  reform  of  the  ascendency 
Poor  Laws,  the  passing  of  the  Factory  Acts,  and  class, 
the  gradual  introduction  of  complete  Free  Trade. 
It  is  true  that  a  busy  agitation  for  democratic  changes  in  the 
constitution  was  kept  up  by  the  Radicals  and  the  "  Chartists  " 
for  many  years.  But  the  middle  classes,  who  had  gained  the 
control  of  the  country  by  the  Reform  Bill,  did  not  look  with 
favour  or  interest  on  these  projects,  and  steadfastly  refused  to 
allow  them  to  be  brought  into  the  sphere  of  practical  politics. 
The  popular  movement,  which  had  broken  down  the  opposition 
of  the  Tories  and  carried  the  bill  of  1832,  had  been  supported 
both  by  the  middle  classes  and  the  labouring  masses.  The 
former,  when  it  was  passed,  got  possession  of  the  power  which 
they  had  coveted,  and  completely  supplanted  the  old  borough- 
mongering  Tory  oligarchy.  They  had  no  intention  of  allow- 
ing their  new  importance  to  be  taken  from  them  and  given  to 
the  artisans  and  labourers ;  hence  they  had  no  inclination  to 
Universal  Suffrage  or  any  other  such  device  for  transferring  the 
sovereignty  of  the  realm  to  the  proletariate.  We  may  define 
their  position  clearly  enough  by  saying  that  they  were  Whigs, 
and  not  Radicals ;  they  wished  for  practical  reforms,  and  not 
for  a  theoretical  revision  of  the  constitution.  Hence  there 
came  a  split  amxong  the  ranks  of  the  great  host  which  had 
fought  for  reform  in  1830-32  :  the  great  majority  of  the  leaders 
and  organizers,  and  nearly  all  the  wealth  and  intelligence  of 
the  party,  were  satisfied  with  what  they  had  got,  and  settled 
down  into  contented  Whiggery.  The  tail  of  the  party — the 
unenfranchised  masses,  headed  by  a  few  demagogues — per- 
sisted in  the  cry  for  further  constitutional  changes  :  but  though 
their  demands  were  political,  their  aims  were  really  social ; 
they  wanted  to  raise  the  standard  of  comfort  and  prosperity 

G 


82  ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

among  the  labouring  classes  much  more  than  to  claim  political 

rights.     If  they  asked  for  the  latter,  it  was  only  in  order  to  use 

them  to  obtain  the  former,  for  the  old  delusion  that  peoples 

can  be  made  prosperous  and  happy  by  Act  of  Parliament  was 

omnipotent  among  them. 

Meanwhile  the  main  result  of  the  Reform  Bill  in  practical 

politics  was  to  place  the  Whig  party  in  power  for  more  than 

forty  years,  with  only  four  short  breaks.     Their 
Supremacy  .  ,  ,  ,  _    .      ^     . 

of  the  Whigs  reign  was  almost  as  long  as  that  ot  the   lories 

in  Parlia-  between  1784  and  1830,  for  between  1830  and 
1874  there  were  only  eight  years  during  which 
Tory  administrations  held  office ;  for  the  remaining  thirty-six 
Whig  cabinets  of  one  shade  or  another  presided  over  the 
administration  of  the  United  Kingdom. 

In  foreign  politics,  the  problems  with  which  the  Grey  ministry 
had  to  deal,  when  the  Reform  Bill  had  been  passed,  differed 
considerably  from  those  of  the  old  days  of  the 
Europe—  "  Holy  Alliance  "  and  the  reign  of  unrestrained 
Russia,  Italy,  despotism.  The  wave  of  revolution  which  had 
swept  over  the  Continent  in  1830  had  left  many 
traces  behind  it.  In  Russia,  Italy,  and  Germany,  indeed, 
the  old  landmarks  of  autocracy  had  not  been  permanently 
submerged,  and  the  governments  were  as  reactionary  as  ever. 
But  the  aspect  of  Europe  had  been  profoundly  changed  by 
the  fact  that  France  had  become  a  liberal  and  constitutional 
France  monarchy  under  King  Louis  Philippe.     As  a  rule, 

Belg-iura,  and  Fiance  and  England  now  found  themselves  taking 
Holland.  ^-^^  same  views  on  Continental  politics ;  if  they 

sometimes  disagreed,  it  was  because  Louis  Philippe  was  a  born 
intriguer  and  loved  tortuous  ways.  Belgium  was  also  established 
as  a  new  constitutional  kingdom,  the  Dutch  having  given  up  their 
attempt  to  hold  her  down  when  France  interfered  in  favour  of 
the  insurgents.  Leopold  of  Saxe-Coburg,  the  widower  of  the 
English  Princess  Charlotte,  was  now  king  at  Brussels,  and  main- 
tained a  firm  friendship  both  with  England  and  with  France. 


PALMERSTONS    FOREIGN   POLICY.  83 

In  Spain  King  Ferdinand  VI I.  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of 
the  Liberals  in  his  old  age,  and  had  changed  the  line  of  suc- 
cession, so  as  to  allow  his  daughter  Isabella  to 
reign  instead  of  his  bigoted  and  reactionary  porJ"^ 
brother  Don  Carlos.  In  Portugal  a  civil  war  was 
raging,  which  ultimately  terminated  in  the  expulsion  of  the 
usurper  Dom  Miguel  and  the  triumph  of  the  constitutional 
Queen  Maria.  Her  cause  was  successful  mainly  owing  to 
English  and  French  support,  the  turning-point  of  the  war  having 
been  a  naval  battle  off  Cape  St.  Vincent,  where  the  skill  of 
Admiral  Napier  enabled  the  small  fleet  of  Donna  Maria  to 
annihilate  a  Miguelite  squadron  of  more  than  double  his  force. 
All  Western  Europe  was,  in  1833,  more  or  less  freed  from  the 
yoke  of  the  alliance  of  the  despotic  monarchs,  though  in  Spain 
the  struggle  was  to  linger  on  for  more  than  seven  years  and  to 
cause  almost  as  much  misery  as  the  Peninsular  War.  The 
last  partisans  of  Don  Carlos  did  not  lay  down  their  arms 
till  1840,  and  the  cruelties  perpetrated  on  both  sides  had  been 
worthy  of  Soudanese  dervishes  or  Kurdish  irregulars. 

On  the  whole,  the  foreign  policy  of  the  Whig  Government 

was  very  successful ;  the  last  fears  of  the  domination  of  Europe 

by  despotism  passed  away,  and  Lord  Palmerston, 

the  able  Canningite   convert  who    managed  our  Palmerston's 

external  relations,  won  a  reputation  for  skill  and  foreign 
.  .  policy, 

decision  which  was   destined  to  make   him  the 

almost  inevitable  Foreign  Secretary  of  all  the  Whig  Govern- 
ments of  the  next  thirty  years.  He  was,  indeed,  far  the  most 
capable  of  the  Whig  statesmen  of  his  generation,  and  a  much 
more  notable  figure  than  the  four  prime  ministers  under  whom 
he  served.  A  bluff,  hearty  man,  full  of  a  genial  self-confidence, 
and  always  determined  that  England  should  have  her  say  in 
any  European  question  that  was  pending,  he  was  looked  upon 
by  his  contemporaries  as  the  ideal  exponent  of  a  "  spirited 
foreign  policy."  We  shall  see  that  sometimes,  as  his  opponents 
sneered,  "  his  bark  was  worse  than  his  bite ; "  but  on  the  whole 


84  ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

he  was  a  good  servant  of  his  country,  and  contrasted  very 
favourably  as  a  diplomatist  with  his  successors  on  the  Liberal 
side  of  the  house. 

But  foreign  affairs  during  the  rule  of  the  Grey  cabinet  were 
by  no  means  so  important  as  home  matters.  The  years  which 
Domestic  followed  the  Reform  Bill  were  full  of  constructive 
reforms  of  legislation  intended  to  make  up  for  the  arrears  of 
^^^'  the  barren  time  since  1815.  The  most  important 
of  the  bills  introduced  by  the  Grey  cabinet  was  that  which 
dealt  with  the  Poor  Laws ;  but  second  only  to  this  was  the 
one  which  finally  did  away  with  negro  slavery  in  our  West 
Indian  colonies. 

The  Poor  Law  as  it  stood  in  1832  was  the  most  fertile  source 
of  misery  that  existed  in  the  United  Kingdom.  Its  unwise 
Poor  Law  administration  during  the  last  forty  years  had 
administra-  done  more  to  bring  about  social  evil  and  political 
^^°"'  unrest  than  any  other  factor  in  the  long  list  of 

l)opular  grievances.  For  nearly  two  centuries  the  principle 
which  governed  the  dealing  of  the  State  with  pauperism  had 
been  a  wise  and  sound  one,  laid  down  in  the  Poor  Law  of  1601 
— that  a  clear  distinction  should  be  drawn  between 
Act^of  1601.^  ^S^d  and  impotent  persons  unable  to  work,  and 
idle  and  improvident  ones  who  could  work  but 
refused  to  do  so.  The  former  were  entitled  to  relief  from  their 
parishes ;  the  latter  were  to  be  compelled  to  a])ply  themselves 
to  labour,  and  even  to  be  punished  if  they  preferred  the  life  of 
the  tramp  and  beggar.  This  radical  distinction  drawn  between 
the  able-bodied  pauper  and  the  unfortunate  victim  of  old  age. 
or  disease  was  always  kept  in  sight  till  the  middle  of  the  reign 
of  George  III. 

It  was  not  until  1782,  one  of  the  troublous  years  of  the  old 

American  war,  that  the  first  step  in  the  wrong  direction  was 

made,  by  an  Act  of  Parliament  (generally  called 
Gilbert's  Act.    ^  .    \  ,,.„       ,     *     ^      ,.  ,       „  ,     , 

irom  Its  tramer  dilberts  Act)  which  allowed  the 

guardians  of  the  poor  in  each  parish  to  find  work  near  his 


THE   OLD   POOR-LAW.  85 

house  for  any  person  out  of  employment,  and  to  add  to  his 

wages  from  the  parish  funds  if  he  had  not  quite  sufficient  to 

maintain  himself.      This  was    followed    fourteen 

1   ^      ,  r-  V       ^  •  c      ■      Disastrous 

years  later  by  a  tar  more  disastrous  piece  of  mis-  changes  in 

placed  philanthropy.    In  the  early  days  of  the  great  the  Poor 
French  war  distress  was  rife  everywhere,  and  one  * 

of  the  methods  taken  to  alleviate  it  was  to  establish  a  system 
of  giving  a  regular  system  of  "  grants  in  aid  of  wages  "  for  all 
poor  labourers.  A  sliding-scale  was  fixed,  by  which,  as  the 
price  of  the  loaf  rose,  more  and  more  money  was  to  be  given 
to  distressed  parishioners  :  the  larger  the  family  the  larger  was 
to  be  the  grant,  in  strict  arithmetical  progression.  The  idea 
was  to  establish  a  minimum  wage  for  the  labourer  which  he 
should  not  fail  to  get ;  but,  unfortunately,  the  device  tended 
rather  to  fix  a  maximum  for  him,  and  that  a  very  low  one. 
For  the  farmers  began  at  once  to  cut  down  the  pay  of  the  men 
they  employed,  in  order  that  they  might  save  their  own  money 
at  the  expense  of  the  parish — every  shilling  that  they  took  off 
being  replaced  by  another  which  came  out  of  the  parish  funds. 
This,  of  course,  had  still  further  bad  effects,  for  the  labourer 
who  was  not  drawing  relief-money  found  himself  receiving  less 
than  his  neighbour  who  was.  Very  soon  this  compelled  him 
to  put  in  his  claim  for  a  similar  dole,  till  the  vast  majority  of 
rural  population  was  receiving  poor-relief,  and  the  free  labourer 
became  a  rare  exception. 

This  disastrous  system,  tried  first  in  Berkshire  in  1795, 
gradually  spread  over  the  whole  country.  Its  main  result  was 
that  the  farmers  and  their  landlords  pocketed  all  the  immense 
profits  which  came  from  the  high  price  of  corn  in  the  years 
of  the  French  war ;  the  rural  poor  got  no  share  of  it.  More- 
over, the  system  tended  to  general  unthrift  and  improvidence 
among  the  country  folk,  because  the  sum  of  the  dole  received 
by  each  family  was  in  proportion  to  its  numbers  ;  the  more 
children  a  man  had,  the  more  poor-relief  was  paid  him.  Hence 
he  wished  to  have  as  many  children  as  possible ;   though  he 


86  ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

might  not  be  able  to  maintain  them  himself,  the  parish  would 
feed  them  for  him.  Early  and  improvident  marriages  became 
the  rule  rather  than  the  exception.  It  will  scarcely  be  credited 
that  this  unhappy  state  of  things  was  viewed  at  first  with  com- 
placency by  English  statesmen.  William  Pitt  himself  once 
said  that  "  parish  relief  should  be  given  as  a  matter  of  right 
or  honour  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  the  recipient's 
children,  so  that  a  large  family  will  become  a  blessing,  not  a 
curse  ;  and  those  who  enrich  their  country  with  a  number  of 
children  will  always  have  a  claim  upon  its  assistance  for  their 
support." 

The  result  of  this  blind  philanthropy  was  that  the  population 
of  the  rural  parishes  went  up  by  leaps  and  bounds,  quite  irre- 
spective of  any  need  for  the  existence  of  more  hands  for  labour, 
till  the  poor-rate  became  an  intolerable  burden.  Between 
1795  and  1815  the  annual  amount  of  it  rose  from  ^2,500,000 
to  ;3£"5,4oo,ooo.  After  the  war  was  over  things  grew  even 
worse,  for  in  the  hard  times  of  1816-20,  when  prices  fell  and 
all  trade  stagnated,  the  population  kept  still  increasing.  Cases 
are  quoted  where  parishes  had  to  go  bankrupt  because  the  sum 
needed  to  feed  their  paupers  actually  exceeded  their  whole 
annual  rateable  value.  In  the  year  of  the  Reform  Bill  the 
maximum  of  misery  was  reached,  the  poor-rates  rising  to  the 
sum  of  ;£"7,ooo,ooo.  That  this  reign  of  pauperism  was  artificial 
was  soon  shown  when  the  government  took  the  matter  in 
hand. 

Lord  Grey's  Act  of  1834  provided  that  a  return  should  be 
made  to  the  old  principle  of  Queen  Elizabeth's  law  of  1601  — 
Reform  of  ^^^^^  out-door  relief  should  only  be  given  to  the 
the  Poor  aged  and  destitute.     All  others  demanding  a  dole 

Law.  horn  the  parish  should  be  only  granted  it  if  they 

went  into  a  workhouse — a  hard  test,  but  one  which  well  dis- 
criminated between  the  idle  and  the  really  distressed,  since 
no  one  wished  to  enter  its  walls  unless  he  was  compelled.  The 
parishes  were  combined  in  groups  called  "  unions,"  in  order  to 


THE   NEW   POOR-LAW   OF    1834.  87 

provide  one  large  and  well-appointed  workhouse  rather  than 
a  number  of  small  and  inefficient  ones. 

The  immediate  result  of  the  New  Poor  Law  was  to  force  the 
farmers  and  other  employers  of  labour  to  pay  their  men  out 
of  their  own  pockets,  and  not  to  depend  on  throw-  r  14.  r 
ing  half  the  expense  on  to  the  parish.  Thus  the  the  Act  of 
labouring  poor  did  not  really  lose  by  the  change  ■^^4- 
in  the  system ;  but  it  fell  hardly  on  the  generation  which  was 
then  in  existence,  since  their  habits  and  manners  of  thought 
and  life  had  been  formed  under  the  old  law.  It  was  impossible 
to  get  rid  of  the  tradition  of  unthrift  and  recklessness  caused 
by  forty  years  of  maladministration.  On  the  whole  the  con- 
dition of  the  countryside  after  1835  ^^^  decidedly  less  happy 
than  it  had  been  before  1795  :  prices  had  gone  up,  while  wages 
had  not,  owing  mainly  to  the  old  Poor  Law.  Even  after  its 
repeal  they  have  risen  very  gradually,  and  have  always  been 
so  much  lower  than  those  obtainable  in  towns,  that  there  has 
been  a  steady  drain  of  population  from  rural  into  urban 
England. 

The  financial  results  of  Lord  Grey's  bill  were  admirable. 
The  sum  expended  in  poor-relief  fell  from  the  ^7,000,000  at 
which  it  stood  in  1832  to  ^4,700,000  in  1836.  And  what 
was  far  more  important,  the  curse  of  pauperism  was  lifted  from 
those  of  the  rural  poor  who  had  the  strength  and  independence 
of  mind  to  fight  for  themselves.  They  were  no  longer 
practically  compelled  to  live  on  chanty,  the  most  demoralizing 
of  all  manners  of  life. 

The  second  great  measure  of  social  reform  associated  with 

the  name  of  Lord  Grey  is  the  abolition  of  Negro  Slavery  in  our 

colonies.     The  slave  trade  had  been  put  an  end  ^,       ,    ,. 
1       ^  11  01  T       The  aboli- 

to  by  the   Grenville  mmistry  m    1807,   but   the  tion  of 

stoppage  of  the  importation  of  fresh  negroes  did  slavery  in 

^       ,  J     r    1  1  .       .     ^       .      ,^    the  colonies, 

not  make  an  end  or  the  unhappy  mstitution  itself. 

Public  opinion  in  England  had  been  growing  more  and  more 

ashamed  that  it  should  linger  on  within  our  empire,  and  an  active 


88  ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

agitation  against  it  had  been  going  on  for  many  years.  But 
the  West  Indian  planters  refused  to  take  the  matter  seriously, 
and  scouted  several  proposals  made  to  them  for  the  gradual 
abolition  of  slavery,  and  even  for  its  amelioration  in  details. 
Their  uncompromising  opposition  to  change  of  any  kind  only 
made  their  fate  come  upon  them  the  more  swiftly  and  surely. 
In  spite  of  their  angry  clamour,  a  bill  was  passed  by  which  all 
slaves  were  made  free,  though  they  were  bound  as  apprentices 
to  their  former  owners  for  three  years,  in  order  to  tide  over  the 
general  breaking  up  of  social  institutions  which  must  follow 
emancipation.  As  was  but  just,  the  planters  were  given  com- 
pensation, a  sum  of  ^20,000,000  being  voted  to  them  in  the 
proportion  of  ;£'2  2  loj-.  for  every  man,  woman,  and  child  set 
free  (August  i,  1834). 

The  emancipation  of  the  negroes  was  an  absolutely  necessary 
act  of  elementary  morality.     Nothing  could  justify  the  survival 

_  ^        of  slavery  far  into  the  nineteenth  century.     But 

Effects  of         ^  ,.         ^     .  ^,  .         ^    , 

abolition  on     hom  the  point  ot  view  01  the  prosperity  of  the 

the  West  West  Indies,  the  change  brought  disastrous  results. 
Indies.  . 

The  freed  men  were  idle  and  disorderly;  when 

the  fear  of  the  lash  was  removed,  they  did  not  take  kindly  to 

work.     The  sugar  plantations  of  the  West  Indies  have  been 

gradually  ruined  by  inefficient  free  labour,  which  cannot  face 

foreign  competition.    In  the  first  seven  years  after  the  abolition 

of  slavery,  the  production  of  sugar  fell  off  by  more  than  a  third, 

and  that  of  coffee  by  nearly  a  half.     Chinese  and   Hindoo 

coolies  have  been  introduced  to  provide  the  plantation-labour 

which  the  free  black  refuses  to  carry  on  systematically.     But 

no  expedient  has  availed  to  save  the  West  India  planters  from 

ruin,  which  has  been  almost  completed  in  our  own  days  by 

the  iniquitous  bounties  on  beet-sugar  paid  by  France  and  other 

continental  states.      Till  they  are   in  some  way  removed  or 

countervailed,  it  does  not  seem  that  prosperity  can  ever  return 

to  the  West  India  Islands. 

The  main  trouble  which  the  Grey  cabinet  endured  in  their 


LORD   GREY   RESIGNS.  89 

Otherwise  prosperous  years  of  office  came  from  Ireland.  Here 
Daniel  O'Connell  was  hard  at  work  with  his  ji-piand— 
agitation  for  the  repeal  of  the  Union  :  but  that  The  tithe 
proposal  never  came  within  the  sphere  of  practical  ^^^' 
politics,  for  no  single  person  in  Great  Britain  gave  it  any 
support.  It  was  otherwise  with  a  secondary  matter  to  which 
O'Connell  also  set  his  hand.  The  Irish  Catholics  had  a  real 
grievance  in  that  they  were  compelled  to  pay  tithe  for  the 
support  of  the  Protestant  Church  of  Ireland.  Over  two-thirds 
of  the  land  there  was  hardly  any  Protestant  population,  and 
the  rectors  and  vicars  had  no  congregations.  They  were 
largely  non-resident,  as  they  had  no  duties  or  work  in  their 
parishes.  That  the  Romanists  should  be  required  to  maintain 
them  seemed  iniquitous.  Flushed  with  their  success  in  the 
matter  of  Catholic  Emancipation,  the  leaders  of  the  peasantry 
started  the  "  Tithe  War " — a  campaign  against  the  clergy  of 
the  State  Church  and  all  who  paid  them  their  much-grudged 
dues. 

Outrages  were  frequent,  and  riots  broke  out  whenever  the 
forcible  collection  of  tithes  was  persisted  in  by  the  govern- 
ment.     Lord  Grey  prepared  remedial    measures 
to  do  away   with    the   grievance,  but  also    very  ^^t  passed— 
properly  passed  a  "  Coercion  Act "  to  put  down  Lofd  Grey 
the  rioters  and  ruffians  who  were  terrorizing  the 
countryside.     For  this  he  was  bitterly  assailed  by  O'Connell. 
There  followed  unfortunate  dissensions  within  the  cabinet  as 
to  the  exact  way  in  which  the  repression  of  violence  and  the 
removal  of  grievances  should  be  combined.     Finding  many  of 
his  colleagues  opposed  to  him,  Lord  Grey  resigned;  he  was 
now  an  old  man,  and  too  worn  out  to  face  a  crisis  (July,  1834). 

The  Whig  party  replaced  their  worthy  old  chief  by  Lord 
Melbourne,  one  of  the  Canningites  of  1828.  But  the  king 
thought  that  the  Tories  should  be  given  their  chance,  and 
invited  Sir  Robert  Peel  to  form  a  ministry.  He  did  so,  and 
dissolved   parliament;  but  Toryism  had  not   recovered  from 


go  ENGLAND   IN   THE    NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

the  dreadful  blow  which  had  been  dealt  it  by  the  Reform  Bill. 
In  the  new  parliament  the  Whigs  were  in  a  decided  majority, 
and  Sir  Robert  had  to  resign  after  having  held  office  for  no 
more  than  three  months  (December,  1834 — March,  1835). 

Lord  Melbourne  then  returned  to  power,  bringing  with  him 
nearly  all  his  old  colleagues  who  had  served  Lord  Grey.  His 
The  Mel-  ministry  lasted  from  1835  to  1841,  and  forms 
bourne  one    of   the    most   uninteresting    periods    in    the 

ministry.  history  of  the  century  ;  there  have  been  probably 

no  six  years  between  1800  and  1900  whose  annals  have  been 
more  thoroughly  forgotten.  Their  political  history  is  mainly 
occupied  by  two  agitations  which  led  to  nothing,  and  whose 
details  have  grown  tedious — O'Connell's  "Repeal"  move- 
ment and  the  "  Chartist "  troubles.  Both  seemed  serious 
enough  at  the  time,  but  died  out,  and  were  not  renewed  for 
another  generation. 

The  one  event  of  first-rate  importance  which  occurred  during 

the  rule  of  the   Melbourne   cabinet  was    the  death  of   King, 

William  IV.  on  Tune  20,  18-? 7.  /  His  two  daug:hters 
Accession        ,     ,..,...-'  L*-w^  j       1      1 

of  Queen  had  died  m  miancy,  so  tltfuTne  succession  devolved 

Victoria—        on  his  niece,  Alexandrina  Victoria,  the  only  child 

Hanover  . 

separated         of  his  next  brother,  Edward  Duke  of  Kent.      All 

from  Eng-  through  King  William's  reign  the  eyes  of  the 
nation  had  been  eagerly  fixed  on  this  young 
princess,  for  her  life  was  the  only  one  which  stood  between 
the  crown  and  her  uncle,  Ernest  Duke  of  Cumberland,  the 
most  unpopular  and  worthless  of  the  sons  of  George  III.  It 
was  a  great  relief  to  the  whole  people  to  see  her  ascend  the 
throne  at  the  age  of  eighteen,  in  health  and  vigour  that  gave 
every  prospect  of  a  long  reign.  Hanover,  where  the  succession 
was  entailed  in  the  male  line,  passed  away  to  the  Duke  of 
Cumberland,  who  made  himself  as  much  disliked  there  as  he 
had  been  in  England.  The  Electorate  had  been  united  to  the 
English  crown  for  123  years;  its  separation  was  an  unquali- 
fied benefit,  for  it   had  perpetually  involved  Great  Britain  in 


ACCESSION    OF   QUEEN   VICTORIA.  91 

countless  problems  of  continental  policy  in  which  we  had  no 
real  concern. 

The  admirable  sovereign  who  still  wears  the  crown  of  the 
United  Kingdom,  after  a  reign  unparalleled  for  length  and 
prosperity  among  all  the  annals  of  her  prede- 
cessors, was  little  known  to  her  subjects  in  1837,  the^queen*  ° 
She  had  been  brought  up  very  simply — almost, 
indeed,  in  seclusion — by  her  mother,  Victoria  of  Coburg,  the 
Dowager-duchess  of  Kent,  who  had  been  determined  that  she 
should  not  court  any  of  the  invidious  popularity  that  comes  to 
heirs  apparenf  who  show  themselves  too  conspicuously  during 
their  predecessors'  lifetime.  But  as  her  people  came  to  know 
her,  they  recognized  that  they  were  fortunate  in  possessing  the 
most  blameless  ruler  that  Great  Britain  has  ever  seen,  the 
pattern  and  model  for  all  constitutional  sovereigns  that  ever 
wore  a  crown.  She  was  conspicuously  free  from  all  the 
hereditary  faults  of  her  family ;  simple  in  her  tastes,  straight- 
forward in  act  and  speech,  full  of  consideration  for  others, 
always  striving  to  do  her  duty  as  a  sovereign  and  a  woman, 
she  soon  won  and  always  retained  her  subjects'  esteem  and 
admiration. 

Her  personal  character  has  been  not  the  least  among  the 
influences  which  have  led  to  a  general  rise  in  the  morals  of 
English  society  during  her  reign.     Married  four 
years  after  her  accession  to  her  cousin  Albert  of  the  o^u^en  ° 
Saxe-Coburg,  she  gave  the  world  an  example  of  with  Albert 
perfect  domestic   happiness,  combined    with    the  Cobure" 
unremitting  discharge  of  public  duties.     To  those 
who  remembered  the  court  of  George  IV.,  the  change  made  in 
a  few  years  was  astonishing.     If  there  was  ever  any  chance  in 
the  first  quarter  of  the  century  that  the  monarchy  might  go 
down    before   the   incoming    flood    of  democratic    ideas,    the 
queen's  character  and  conduct  soon  averted  the  danger.     Nor 
can  his  meed  of  praise  be  denied  to  her  husband,  who  dis- 
charged  with    rare   self-restraint   the   difficult    functions  of  a 


92  ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

Prince  Consort.  In  spite  of  the  vague  distrust  with  which  he 
was  at  first  regarded,  owing  to  his  foreign  birth,  he  showed 
that  he  was  able  to  adapt  himself  to  English  political  ideas 
and  usages.  In  spite  of  many  temptations,  he  never  made 
himself  a  party  man  or  allowed  his  name  to  be  used  for  party 
purposes. 

The  change  of  reign,  therefore,  had  no  appreciable  effect  on 
the   fortunes    of  the    Melbourne    ministry.     If  at    first  a  few 

bigoted  Tories  gmmbled  that  the  young  queen 
The  ministry  might  become  a  tool  in  the  hands  of  the  Whigs, 
j^gjj  —The  "  ^^^^y  were  soon  undeceived.  The  main  difficulties 
tithe  grie-  of  the  Melbourne  cabinet  sprang  from  the  fact 
removed.         ^^^^  ^^^  majority  which  they  commanded  in  the 

House  of  Commons  was  very  small,  except  when 
it  was  reinforced  by  O'Connell  and  his  "  tail,"  as  the  horde  of 
not  very  respectable  satellites  whom  he  brought  to  Westminster 
was  often  called.  At  a  pinch  the  Irish  would  vote  with  the 
government  to  keep  out  the  Tories,  but  in  ordinary  times  they 
preferred  to  worry  it,  in  order  to  make  their  power  felt,  and 
to  screw  "  Repeal,"  if  possible,  out  of  the  Whigs.  Under  these 
circumstances  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  days  of  the  Melbourne 
cabinet  were  singularly  unmarked  by  legislation  of  any  kind, 
good  or  bad.  The  only  really  important  measure  which  was. 
passed  was  one  to  redeem  Lord  Grey's  pledge  of  1834  on  the 
matter  of  the  Irish  tithe,  from  which  the  Roman  Catholic 
peasantry  were  now  wholly  relieved — the  payment  being  trans- 
ferred to  their  landlords,  who  were  mainly  members  of  the 
Established  Church. 

The  most  marked  feature  of  the  years  1835-41  in  the  internal 
history   of   England   was    the    fruitless    "  Chartist "    agitation. 

Though  it  took  a  political  shape,  this  movement 
CharteT^  ^  ^  ^^^  really  social  in  its  character.     It  was  caused 

by  the  disappointment  felt  by  the  labouring  masses 
at  the  small  profit  which  they  had  got  out  of  the  passage  of  the 
Reform  Bill  and  the  advent  of  the  Whigs  to  office.     They  had 


THE   CHARTIST   MOVEMENT.  93 

vaguely  believed  that  a  millennium  of  prosperity  would  follow 
the  purification  of  the  House  of  Commons.  When  disappointed 
in  this,  they  did  not  take  warning,  and  reflect  that  the  possession 
of  political  rights  does  not  necessarily  bring  happiness  or 
prosperity  in  its  train.  The  demagogues  who  led  them  per- 
suaded themselves  that  all  would  go  well  if  only  further  reforms 
on  more  democratic  lines  were  carried  out.  They  therefore 
drew  up  the  "  People's  Charter,"  from  which  their  followers 
became  known  as  Chartists;  it  demanded  six  concessions 
from  the  government :  (i)  universal  suffrage  was  to  replace  the 
;£"io  household  suffrage  introduced  in  1832  ;  (2)  voting  was 
to  be  by  ballot;  (3)  members  of  parliament  were  to  receive 
a  salary  ;  (4)  all  the  existing  boroughs  and  counties  were  to  be 
recast  into  electoral  districts  of  equal  population  ;  (5)  no  quali- 
fication of  property  was  to  be  required  from  members  of 
parliament;  (6)  parliaments  were  to  be  annual,  instead  of 
sitting  for  seven  years.  If  all  these  demands  had  been  granted 
in  a  lump,  they  would  not  have  really  done  anything  towards 
helping  the  Chartists  to  higher  wages  or  shorter  hours  of  work, 
which  were  in  reality  the  aims  for  which  they  were  ready  to 
fight.  An  outspoken  popular  speaker  put  the  case  clearly 
when  he  declared  in  1838  that  "the  principle  of  the  Charter 
means  that  every  working  man  in  the  land  has  the  right  to  a 
good  coat,  a  good  hat,  a  good  dinner,  no  more  work  than  will 
keep  him  in  health,  and  as  much  wages  as  will  keep  him  in 
plenty."  Practically,  in  spite  of  its  purely  political  form,  the 
Chartist  agitation  was  only  an  earlier  shape  of  the  demand  for 
the  "  living  wage  "  of  which  we  hear  so  much  to-day. 

Of  the  six  points  of  the  Charter,  the  second,  fourth,  and  fifth 
have  been  practically  conceded  for  many  years ;  the  first  is  not 
far  from  completion  since  1884,  when  all  house-  Pj-q press  of 
holders  and  most  lodgers  were  enfranchised.     No  the  Chartist 
one  can   seriously  suppose  that  the  payment  of  ^S^ation. 
members  would  revolutionize  the  character  of  parliament,  and 
it  is  now  universally  conceded  that  annual  dissolutions  and 


94  ENGLAND   IN    THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

general  elections  would  be  an  unqualified  nuisance.  Yet  over 
this  programme,  perfectly  incapable  of  producing  the  social 
benefits  which  were  desired,  the  masses  of  the  great  manu- 
facturing towns  expended  a  vast  amount  of  sound  and  fury 
between  the  years  1838  and  1848.  They  never  had  any 
leaders  of  weight  or  note,  capable  of  guiding  them  with  firm- 
ness and  keeping  them  out  of  mischief.  Hence  they  soon 
turned  to  aimless  and  destructive  rioting,  and  thereby  caused 
the  whole  middle  class  to  rally  round  the  government  and 
determine  that  the  "  Charter "  should  on  no  account  be  con- 
ceded. In  a  riot  at  Birmingham  in  1839,  the  damage  done 
was  so  wanton  and  malicious,  that  the  Duke  of  Wellington 
declared  that  it  exceeded  anything  that  he  had  seen  in  the 
towns  carried  by  assault  during  the  Peninsular  War.  At 
Newport,  in  Monmouthshire,  a  mob  of  five  thousand  Welsh 
miners  armed  with  scythes  and  fowling-pieces  seized  the  town, 
and  had  to  be  fired  on  by  the  soldiery.  Such  scenes  made  any 
further  democratic  reforms  impossible,  and  though  the  Chartists 
kept  bombarding  parliament  with  monster  petitions  for  the 
next  nine  years,  no  government.  Whig  or  Tory,  showed  the  least 
signs  of  listening  to  their  threats.  When  they  grew  very  violent 
in  1848,  under  the  influence  of  news  of  revolutions  on  the 
Continent,  200,000  special  constables  appeared  in  the  streets 
of  London  to  aid  the  armed  forces  of  the  crown,  and  the 
Chartist  meetings  collapsed  ignominiously. 

The    Melbourne    government    went    out   in    August,    1841, 
and  the  Tory  party,  after  eleven  years  of  powerlessness,  were 

once  more  in  office.  Under  their  new  leader, 
the  1  ory  or  Sir  Robert  Peel,  they  were  a  very  different  body 
Conservative  from  their  ancestors  of  the  days  before  the  Reform 

Bill.  Their  wish  to  break  with  the  reactionary 
traditions  of  Addington  and  Castlcreagh  is  shown  by  the  fiict 
that  they  had  now  adopted  the  new  name  of  "  Conservatives." 
Their  programme  was  no  longer  unintelligent  resistance  to  all 
change,  and  while  opposing  the  violent  designs  of  the  Chartists 


SIR   ROBERT   PEEL.  95 

and  the  Irish,  they  were  quite  wiUing  to  adopt  cautious 
measures  of  advance  in  both  constitutional  and  social  legisla- 
tion. The  party,  in  fact,  was  led  by  chiefs  who  represented  the 
Canningite  Tories  of  1828,  and  who  were  no  longer  divided 
by  any  very  wide  gulf  from  their  Whig  opponents.  It  was 
the  same  with  the  bulk  of  their  adherents :  the  Chartists  had 
frightened  the  middle  classes  into  the  Conservative  ranks  by 
tens  of  thousands.  The  feeble  Melbourne  government  had 
entirely  failed  to  keep  together  the  great  army  which  had  won 
the  victory  of  the  Reform  Bill.  Peel  himself  was 
a  commanding  figure,  more  fitted  to  lead  a  great  p^^j  °  ^^ 
party  than  any  statesman  who  had  appeared  since 
the  death  of  William  Pitt.  He  was  the  son  of  a  wealthy 
Lancashire  manufacturer,  not  one  of  the  old  ring  of  Tory 
landholders.  His  enlightened  views  on  social  and  economic 
questions  made  him  popu'ar  with  the  middle  classes.  In  his 
foreign  policy  he  was  as  firm  as  his  rival  Palmerston.  As  a 
financier  and  an  administrator  he  was  unrivalled  in  his  age — 
finance,  indeed,  had  always  been  the  weak  point  of  the  Whigs. 
He  was  perhaps  a  little  autocratic  and  impatient  with  the 
slower  and  more  antiquated  members  of  his  party,  but  no  one 
could  have  foreseen  in  1841  that  his  rule  was  not  to  be  a  long 
one,  and  that  he  was  ultimately  destined  to  break  up,  not  to 
consolidate,  the  Conservative  party. 

His  firm  rule  kept  down  the  Chartists,  and  caused  the  final 
collapse  of  the  "  Repeal "  movement  in  Ireland.     O'Connell 
had  been  promising  his  countrymen  Home  Rule 
for  many  years  and  with  most  eloquent  verbosity.  Repeal  move- 
but  they  grew  tired  when  all  his  talk   ended  in  "J^",t  ^" 

.  Parliament. 

nothing.      The  installation    m    office  of  a   Tory 

government  with  a  crushing  majority  in  the  Commons,  left  him 
no  chance  of  using  the  votes  of  his  "  tail "  to  any  effect.  He 
had  always  set  his  face  against  insurrection  and  outrage,  and 
when  peaceful  means  became  obviously  useless  to  attain  his 
end,  both  he  and  his  followers  fell  into  a  state  of  depression. 


96  ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

The  Peel  government  did  not  take  his  agitation  too  seriously  : 
he  was  arrested  for  treasonable  language  used  at  a  monster 
meeting  at  Tara  in  1843,  but  the  House  of  Lords  reversed  his 
condemnation  on  a  technical  point,  and  no  further  proceedings 
were  taken  against  him.  But  his  following  broke  up,  the 
majority  sinking  into  apathy,  while  the  minority  resolved  to 
appeal,  in  the  old  fashion  of  1798,  to  armed  insurrection — a 
method  even  more  hopeless  for  gaining  their  end  than  monster 
meetings.  But  it  was  not  till  five  years  later  that  they  made 
their  attempt. 

Meanwhile,  Peel  passed  many  admirable  laws  for  the  benefit 
of  the  working  classes.     His  Mines  Acts  (1842)  prohibited  the 

labour  of  women  and  children  underground  ;  his 
^^.^g_  Factory  Acts  (1844)  restricted  the  employment  of 

Financial  the  young  in  factories,  and  appointed  inspectors 
'  to  see  to  their  sanitation  and  safety.  He  also  set 
right  the  finances  of  the  kingdom,  which  Lord  Melbourne 
had  left  in  a  very  unsatisfactory  state,  and  did  much  for  the 
introduction  of  Free-trade  in  commerce.  In  one  year  he 
reduced  the  import  duties  on  no  less  than  750  articles  of  daily 
use,  ranging  from  live  cattle  and  eggs  to  hemp  and  timber. 
The  loss  in  revenue  this  caused  he  made  up  by  imposing  an 
Income  Tax,  which  he  promised  to  abolish  at  an  early  date. 
He  lost  office  ere  the  time  came,  and  his  successors  have  never 
made  very  serious  efforts  to  redeem  his  pledge. 

In  foreign  affairs  the   Peel  cabinet  had  many  troubles   to 
face,  but  came  safely  through  most  of  them.     The  disastrous 

Afghan  war,*  a  legacy  from  Lord  Melbourne's 
Sikh  wars—  time,  was  brought  to  a  not  inglorious  end.  The 
Difficulties       first  Sikh  war,  an  even  greater  trial  of  our  strength 

in  the  East,  finally  ended  in  complete  victory. 
Two  quarrels  with  France  seemed  likely  for  a  moment  to  end 
in  hostilities ;  both  were  provoked  by  the  arrogant  policy  of 
the   ministers    of  Louis   Philippe.     In   1844  the   French  laid 

*  See  chapter  on  India  and  the  Colonies. 


THE    SPANISH    MARRIAGES.  97 

violent  hands  on,  and  deported,  our  consul  at  Tahiti,  in  Poly- 
nesia. Firmly  faced  and  threatened  with  war,  they  apologized 
and  paid  him  compensation.  The  second  quarrel  was  more 
serious :  in  order  to  extend  his  influence  over  Spain,  the  old 
French  king  designed  to  marry  one  of  his  sons  to  the  girl-queen 
Isabella.  Finding  that  this  proposal  met  with  general  resent- 
ment in  Europe,  and  especially  in  England,  he  determined  to 
secure  his  purpose  in  a  more  roundabout  way.  He  married 
his  son,  the  Duke  of  Montpensier,  to  the  queen's 

sister,  her  natural    heiress,  while  he   bribed  the  _      Spanish 

;  ...  marriages. 

Spanish  court  and  ministry  to  give  the  hand  of 

their  unfortunate  young  sovereign  to  her  cousin  Don  Francisco, 
a  wretched  weakling  whom  she  detested  (1846).  He  intended 
that  Montpensier  should  be  the  practical  ruler  of  the  country 
as  long  as  Isabella  lived,  and  succeed  to  her  throne  when  she 
died.  This  villainous  plot  against  a  helpless  girl  succeeded 
for  the  moment,  but  failed  in  the  end,  because  Louis  Philippe 
lost  his  own  kingdom  in  1848,  and  so  was  not  able  to  support 
his  son.  It  was  carried  out  in  the  last  months  of  Peel's  power, 
and  the  resenting  of  its  successful  accomplishment  passed  to 
the  Whig  cabinet  which  followed  him.  Lord  Palmerston  broke 
sharply  with  France,  but  did  not  press  the  quarrel  to  the  point 
of  war.  It  caused,  however,  a  final  rupture  with  the  French 
king,  with  whom  we  had  hitherto  been  on  rather  friendly 
terms,  and  the  fall  of  the  old  intriguer  in  1848  was  welcomed 
by  most  Englishmen  as  a  righteous  judgment  on  his  sins. 

Peel's  later  years  of  office  (1845-6)  were  made  unhappy  by 
a  domestic  calamity  of  appalling  violence— the  dreadful  potato- 
famine  in  Ireland.    In  other  countries  the  complete 
destruction  of  the  potato  crop  by  blight  in  two  famine, 
successive  years  would  have  caused  nothing  more 
than  serious  inconvenience.     But  in  Ireland  half  the  nation  de- 
pended on  the  root.    The  population  had  been  multiplying  with 
appalling  rapidity ;  in  thirty  years  it  had  risen  from  five  to  eight 
millions,  and  this  not  owing  to  flourishing  trade  or  manufactures, 

u 


98  ENGLAND    IN    THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

or  to  any  great  increase  in  the  amount  of  land  cultivated. 
The  landlords  had  been  permitting  their  tenants  to  cut  up  their 
farms  into  smaller  and  smaller  patches,  till  an  average  holding 
did  not  suffice  to  support  its  occupier,  who  had  to  make  up  the 
deficit  by  seeking  harvest  work  in  England  during  the  summer. 
Several  millions  of  people  were  living  on  these  wretched  patches 
of  ground,  always  on  the  edge  of  starvation,  and  sustained  only 
by  their  potatoes.  On  such  an  indigent  population  two  years 
of  blight  brought  absolute  famine.  Before  the  disaster  was 
fully  realized,  thousands  had  perished  from  actual  hunger,  or 
from  the  fevers  and  dysentery  following  on  bad  and  insufficient 
food.  The  workhouses  were  crammed  till  they  could  hold  no 
more,  and  outdoor  relief  did  not  yet  exist  in  Ireland.  Far  too 
late,  the  government  began  to  establish  public  soup-kitchens, 
and  pour  in  food  of  all  kinds.  But  it  was  long  before  relief 
could  penetrate  to  out-of-the-way  districts,  and  the  famine  was 
prolonged  for  many  months. 

Sir  Robert  Peel,  deeply  impressed  by  the  horrors  of  the 
situation,  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  best  remedy  would 
The  Corn  ^^  ^^^  abolition  of  the  protective  duties  on  home- 
Law  ques-  grown  corn,  which  rendered  difficult  in  such  crises 
^^®"*  the   importation    of   foreign    food.      After   much 

thought,  he  resolved  to  introduce  a  bill  providing  for  the 
abolition  of  the  Corn  Laws  in  1849,  and  introducing  for 
the  three  intervening  years  a  low  scale  of  duties.  This  bold 
step  caused  immediate  division  in  the  Tory  camp ;  the  great 
landowners,  who  formed  such  a  large  and  powerful  section  of 
the  party,  were  convinced  that  free  trade  in  corn  meant  the  ruin 
of  English  agriculture,  and  many  of  them  resolved  to  follow 
Peel  no  longer.  Several  of  his  colleagues  in  the  cabinet  re- 
signed, and  many  scores  of  members  in  the  Commons  announced 
tliat  they  should  vote  against  their  great  chiefs  bilL  The  dis- 
contented faction  was  headed  by  Lord  George  Bentinck  and 
Benjamin  Disraeli,  who  now  first  appeared  prominently  in 
politics.     He  was  the  son  of  a  Jewish  m^n  of  letters,  and  had 


PEEL  ABOLISHES   THE   CORN-LAWS.  99 

hitherto  been  regarded  as  little  more  than  an  ingenious  char- 
latan, though  his  somewhat  bombastic  and  turgid  novels  showed 
plenty  of  cleverness  and  wit.  Now,  by  organizing  the  opponents 
of  Peel  into  a  solid  body,  he  showed  that  he  could  do  some- 
thing in  practical  politics. 

The  repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws  was  carried  by  Peel  only  with 
the  assistance  of  the  votes  of  his  opponents,  the  Whigs,  by  337 
votes  to  240 — the    minority  including  two-thirds 
of  the  Tory  party  (May  16,  1846).     Two  months  Repeal  of  the 
later  the  Protectionists  took  their  revenge  on  their  _Break-up 

former  chief  by  uniting  with  the  Whigs  to  throw  of  the  Con- 

servative 
out  a  Bill  intended  to  put  down  agrarian  crime  party. 

in  Ireland  (July,    1846).     Peel  at  once  resigned. 

His  enlightened  and  courageous  action  with  regard  to  the  Corn 

Laws  had  not  only  doomed  him  to  sit  in  opposition  for  the  rest 

of  his  life,  but  had  hopelessly  broken  up  the  Conservative  party. 

It  was  now  divided  into  two  irreconcilable  sections,  for  Peel 

could  not  forgive  the  rebels  who  had  turned  him  out  of  office, 

while  the  Protectionists  looked  upon  him  as  a  traitor  who  had 

cast  away  one  of  the  main  planks  of  the  party  platform.     Such 

hard  words   had   passed   between   them  that  they  could   not 

easily  forgive  each  other.     Hence  it  is  not  strange  that  the 

Conservatives  were  destined  never  to  enjoy  a  real  parliamentary 

majority  again  for  nearly  thirty  years. 

Meanwhile,  the  Whigs  returned  to  office  under  Lord  John 
Russell,  the  introducer  of  the  Reform  Bill  of  1832,  an  adroit 
party  politician,   full   of  buoyant  self-confidence,  j^^j.^  j^j^jj 
but  not  a  man  of  any  great  mark  or  originality.   Russell's 
Palmerston,  a  much  more  notable  figure,  resumed  "^^"^^try. 
his  place  at  the  Foreign  Office,  which  he  was  now  to  hold  with- 
out any  appreciable  break  for  twenty  years  more,  till  his  death 
in   1865.     The  new  government  had  to  take  over  two  trouble- 
some legacies  from   their  predecessors,  the  Irish  famine  and 
the  still-lingering  Chartist  agitation. 

In  dealing  with  the  former,  they  did  not  show  themselves  much 


loo         ENGLAND   IN    THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

more  effective  than  the  Conservatives — there  was  still  a  vast 

mortality  from  fever  and  dysentery  in  1846,  which 

the  g:overn°^  might    have    been    prevented    by    really   active 

ment — Evic-    measures  of  relief     In  the  following  year,  when 

?^?5^^^?!v«  the  stress  of  the  famine  was  over,  the  Irish  land- 
emigration.  ' 

lords  tried  to  free  themselves  from  the  danger  of 
such  another  disaster,  by  suddenly  reversing  their  former  policy 
of  multiplying  small  tenants  on  diminutive  holdings.  They 
began  at  once  to  consolidate  the  small  farms  into  large  ones 
by  evicting  their  weakest  and  poorest  tenants.  This  process 
was  carried  out  in  many  cases  with  inconsiderate  haste  and 
reckless  cruelty,  families  which  had  been  brought  low  by  the 
famine  being  cast  out  on  the  roadside  by  thousands.  The 
greater  part  of  them  ultimately  struggled  across  the  Atlantic 
to  the  United  States.  The  policy  was  the  correct  one  from 
the  point  of  view  of  economy,  but  it  was  worked  out  with  inex- 
cusable disregard  for  the  sufferings  of  the  evicted. 

The  general  indignation  felt  for  the  clearances  of  1847  was 
the  main  cause  of  the  Irish  rising  of  1848.  A  large  body  of 
Smith  O'Connell's    former    followers    had    some    years 

O'Brien's  before  seceded  from  him,  because  they  insisted 
insurrection.  ^^^^^  ^^.^^^^  rebellion  was  justifiable,  while  he 
had  been  all  for  peaceful  agitation.  Now  they  struck  their 
blow,  and  proved  themselves  (July,  1848)  utterly  unable  to  do 
anything  serious.  Smith  O'Brien,  an  enthusiastic  and  well- 
meaning  member  of  parliament,  was  their  chosen  leader,  and 
proved  a  most  incompetent  general  and  organizer.  He 
collected  2000  armed  men,  but  his  campaign  ended  in  a 
ludicrous  fiasco,  the  "  Army  of  the  Irish  Republic "  being 
dispersed  by  fifty  constables  after  a  scuffle  in  a  cabbage-garden 
near  Bonlagh,  in  Tipperary.  Smith  O'Brien  and  the  other 
chiefs  were  tried  and  condemned  for  high  treason,  but  the 
government  wisely  and  mercifully  gave  them  no  further  punish- 
ment tlian  a  few  years'  deportation  to  the  colonies,  and  granted 
them  "  tickets-of-leave  "  long  ere  their  sentence  was  out. 


'»     1         :>       ■> 


THE    REVOLUTIONS    OF    1848.  101 

Tlie  end  of  the  Chartist  agitation  had  fallen  a  few  weeks 
before  the   Irish  rising,  and   had   been    equally  ignominious. 
The  London  Chartists,  having  resolved  to  march  ^^^    . ., 
on   the    Houses    of    Parliament    and    present   a  Chartist 
monster  petition  for  the  "  six  points,"  were  for-  ^^it^tion. 
bidden  to  approach  Westminster.     They  declared  their  inten- 
tion of  forcing  their  way  thither,  but  the  government  called  out 
the  troops,  and  200,000  special  constables  answered  the  appeal 
for  civil  aid.     Hearing  of  this  army  ready  to  meet  them,  the 
Chartists  very  wisely,  but  rather  tamely,  went  home,  after  sending 
their  vast  petition  to  the  Commons  in  three  cabs.     The  fact 
that  April  14,  1848,  was  a  very  rainy  day  seems  to  have  had  a 
good  deal  to  do  with  this  absurd  fiasco. 

The  ease  with  which  sedition  and  rebellion  had  been  crushed 
in  the  United  Kingdom  in  1848,  contrasted  strangely  with 
the  height  to  which  they  rose  on  the  Continent  in  Revolution- 
the  same  year.  I'he  hidden  fires  which  had  once  ary  agitation 
before  flamed  out  in  1830  now  burst  forth  again  ^"  t-urope. 
with  even  greater  violence,  and  every  state  except  Russia  was 
soon  in  a  conflagration.  In  Italy  and  Hungary  the  insur- 
rections were  purely  national  and  directed  against  the  foreign 
yoke  of  the  House  of  Habsburg.  In  Germany  and  France 
they  were  partly  political,  partly  social  in  character,  and  aimed 
at  a  sweeping  change  in  the  constitution  in  the  direction  of 
liberalism.  In  Spain  they  were  purely  factious,  and  only  rose 
from  the  desperate  strife  of  ambitious  party  leaders. 

The  trouble  started  in  France,  where  Louis  Philippe  in  his  old 
age  was  growing  forgetful  of  his  position  as  a  constitutional 
king,  and  after  eighteen  years  of  fairly  successful 
rule  thought  himself  firm  upon  his  throne.  He  phiiippe  °"^^ 
set  hmiself  to  oppose  an  agitation  for  the  extension 
of  the  franchise,  and  by  obstinately  repressing  all  conces- 
sions, and  putting  down  the  meetings  which  the  liberal  party 
organized,  provoked  widespread  discontent.  The  opposition, 
which  had  at  first  been  peaceable  and  orderly,  was  gradually 


I02        ENGLAND    IN   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 

encouraged  into  violence  by  the  mixture  of  obstinacy  and  vacil- 
lation which  Louis  Philippe  displayed.  On  February  24  riots 
broke  out  in  Paris  :  the  king  declined  to  allow  the  prompt  and 
stern  use  of  force,  and  tried  to  conciliate  the  rioters.  But 
finding  him  so  weak,  they  cried  aloud  for  his  deposition,  and 
Louis  Philippe,  with  a  feebleness  strange  in  one  who  had  shown 
himself  a  good  soldier  on  the  field  of  battle,  abdicated  and 
fled  in  disguise.  His  family  were  sent  into  exile  after  him, 
and  the  almost  bloodless  insurrection  ended  in  the  creation  of 
a  republic.  A  show  of  firmness  would  have  averted  the 
revolution,  for  the  middle  classes  had  no  desire  for  it,  and  the 
army  would  have  obeyed  orders  if  only  they  had  been  given 
at  the  right  moment.  The  republicans,  too,  were  divided 
among  themselves,  for  the  moderate  wing  was  desperately 
afraid  of  the  extremists,  who  were  deeply  imbued  with 
socialistic  views,  and  wished  to  introduce  all  manner  of  experi- 
ments in  the  direction  of  state-socialism.  There  was  street- 
fighting  in  Paris  before  the  Republic  was  four  months  old,  and 
ere  the  year  was  out  a  President  was  put  at  the  helm  of  the 
state,  with  the  avowed  object  of  suppressing  anarchy  and  civil 
war  by  the  use  of  armed  force. 

This  "  saviour  of  society "  was  most  unwisely  chosen ;  the 
man  to  whom  France  entrusted  her  safety  was  Louis  Napoleon, 
the  nephew  of  Napoleon  I.,  an  adventurer  who 
Napoleon  ^^^^  already  headed  two  hair-brained  risings 
against  Louis  Philippe  on  avowed  imperialist 
lines.  To  suppose  that  such  a  personage — who  loved  to  style 
himself  "  the  nephew  of  his  uncle,"  and  was  the  heir  of  the  old 
Bonapartist  tradition — would  settle  down  into  the  mere  president 
of  a  Conservative  republic  was  absurd.  Louis  Napoleon  from 
the  first  set  himself  to  get  all  the  threads  of  power  into  his 
hands,  in  order  to  make  himself  an  autocrat  at  the  earliest 
opportunity. 

Meanwhile,  the  French  revolution  of  March,  1848,  had  set 
Europe  on    fire.     In    Italy    there   was  a   general   insurrection 


THE   ITALIAN    RISING   OF    1848.  103 

against    the  Austrian   yoke,  headed   by  Charles  Albert,   King 

of  Sardinia.       But    the    peninsula   was    not   yet 

.       ...      ^  .        .  ^      •      ^u  Insurrection 

ripe   for   liberty ;    the    insurgents    in   the  various  -^^  j^^jy^ 

regions    were  full  of  local  patriotism,  and  many 

of  them  dreamed  of  nothing  but  restoring  the  old  republics  of 

the  Middle  Ages.     They  failed  to  give  each  other  loyal  aid, 

and  were  betrayed  by  their  princes,  who  saw  that  Italian  liberty 

would  mean  Italian  unity  and  their  own  expulsion.     The  pope 

and    King    of    Naples    contrived   to    paralyze    the   armies    of 

Southern  Italy,  and  the  Sardinians,  who  were  left  almost  unaided, 

proved  not  strong  enough  to  expel  the  Austrians.     After  two 

campaigns,    Charles   Albert    was    crushed    and   compelled    to 

abdicate  (March,  1849);  while  the  gallant  but  useless  defence 

of  Venice  and  Rome  by  local  patriots,  who  had  declared  in 

favour  of  republicanism,  had  no  effect  on  the  general  current 

of  the  war,  and    only  served    to   prolong    its  miseries.     With 

the    fall    of    Rome    (July,    1849)    the     struggle    ended  :    the 

City  of  the  Popes  fell,  not  before  the  Austrians,  but  before  a 

French   force   sent   out   by    Louis    Napoleon    to 

"  restore  order "  in  the  Papal  States.     Thus  the  ment  crushed 

nominal  French  republic  showed  its  real  character  by  the 

-,     ,.         ,  7        ^  ,  ,  ,•  r  Austrians. 

by  dealing  the  ^onJ>  ae  grace  to  the  republicans  01 

the  sister  country.     A  Bonaparte  could  not  be  a  true  lover  of 
liberty. 

The    triumph  of  the  Austrians  in   Italy   seems  most  extra- 
ordinary, when  we  remember  that  they  were  at  the  same  time 
oppressed  by  a  democratic  rising  in  Vienna  and  ^  „.  . 
great  national  rebellion  in  Hungary.  The  insurgents  Austria  and 

of  the  capital  were  put  down  after  a  severe  strus^erle  Hungary 
^  ^  ^^      put  down. 

(October,   1848);  but  the  Hungarians,  under  the 

dictator    Kossuth,    made    head   against    the   imperial   armies, 

inflicted  several  defeats  on  them,  and  drove  them  back  into 

Austria.     Thereupon  the  Czar  Nicholas  of  Russia,  fearing  that 

Poland  would  follow  Hungary's   example,  poured  his    armies 

across  the  Carpathians  to  the  aid  of  the  young  Emperor  Francis 


104        ENGLAND   IN    TME   NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 

Joseph,    and    crushed   the    insurgents    by    force    of  numbers 

(August,  1849). 

In  Germany  the  troubles  had  been  widespread,  but  not  so 

bloody  as  in  the  south  and  east.     The  King  of  Prussia,  driven 

for  a  moment  from  his  capital,  returned  at  the 
Democratic      ,        ,     r  ^  r  ■  ^  i    1     • 

movements      head  of  an  army  and  frightened  the  msurgents  mto 

in  the  Ger-       disj^ersing  without  loss  of  life  (November,  1848). 

man  states.      mi       ^  -,■  ^^      ^  r  1  •  1  •  1 

Ihe   German  diet  at  l^rankfort,  which  met  with 

vague  ideas  of  unifying  the  numerous  states  of  the  Fatherland 
into  a  single  empire,  went  to  pieces  without  having  accomplished 
anything,  for  no  two  delegates  agreed  together  in  their  views, 
and  the  conservative  influences  were  strong.  An  attempt  had 
been  made  to  rouse  national  enthusiasm  by  an  attack  on  Den- 
mark, to  free  the  German  duchies  of  Holstein  and  Schleswig, 
from  their  vassalage  to  Frederick  VII.,  but  it  miscarried  hope- 
lessly (June,  i>S48),  and  a  democratic  rising  in  South  Germany 
was  easily  suppressed.  When  Austria's  hands  were  freed  by  the 
end  of  the  Italian  and  Hungarian  revolts,  the  rest  of  Germany 
sank  back  into  its  former  dependence  on  her.  An  attempt  to 
set  up  Prussia  in  her  place  as  head  of  a  new  German  Empire 
(February,  1849)  had  come  to  nought,  for  King  Frederick 
William  IV.  refused  the  proffered  crown,  seeing  that  by  accept- 
ing it  he  must  become  involved  in  a  war  with  Austria,  and  pro- 
bably with  Russia  also,  when  those  powers  had  crushed  Charles 
Albert  and  Kossuth. 

Lord  Palmerston  had  a  task  of  no  mean  difBculty  when  con- 
fronted with  all  the  troubles  of  1848-9.  His  own  sympathy. 
Attitude  ^"^    ^^^^^    ^^  ^^^^    English    people,    lay    with    the 

of  Lord  Italians  and   Hungarians.     But  it  was  obviously 

a  mers  on.  ^^^^  ^^^  business  to  interfere  directly  in  foreign 
constitutional  and  national  struggles,  in  which  we  had  no 
immediate  concern.  Palmerston  let  it  be  known  that  he  would 
"  take  advantage  of  all  opportunities  to  press  counsels  of  order 
and  peace  on  the  contending  })arties,"  but  that  he  would  do 
nothing  more.      Tliis  policy  laid  him  open   to  the  charge  of 


REACTION   TRIUMPHANT   IN   EUROPE.  105 

using  strong  language,  but  not  backing  it  up  by  strong  action, 
and  he  was  bitterly  attacked  by  the  friends  of  Italy  and 
Hungary  for  giving  them  no  more  than  fair  words.  But  it  is 
quite  certain  that  if  he  had  entered  on  a  crusade  in  favour  of 
national  rights  and  the  liberty  of  peoples,  we  should  have  found 
ourselves  engaged  in  war  with  the  greater  part  of  the  govern- 
ments of  Europe.  No  help  would  have  come  from  France, 
the  other  power  which  ought  to  have  favoured  the  liberal  side, 
for  Louis  Napoleon  acted  always  as  a  self-seeking  autocrat,  and 
not  as  the  president  of  a  republic. 

It  was  a  hard  day  for  the  friends  of  liberty,  when,  in  1849, 
the  last  struggles  of  the  insurgents  of  Italy  and  Hungary  were 
put  down  by  the  Austrian  and  Russian  bayonets.  But  the  end 
was  not  yet ;  as  Palmerston  observed,  "  opinions  may  in  the 
end  prove  stronger  than  armies."  Before  he  died  in  1865,  he 
saw  his  prophecy  fulfilled  in  part,  and  ere  a  quarter  of  a  century 
had  passed,  Italy  was  united,  and  Hungary  autonomous. 

Meanwhile  England  had  passed  with  the  minimum  of  friction 
and  trouble  through  the  years  which  had  been  so  disastrous  to 
the  Continental  states.    The  two  lingering  dangers. 
Chartism  and  Irish  rebellion,  which  had  remained  and  confi- 
as  an  incubus  on  men's  minds  for  the  last   ten  dence  in 
years,  had   been  faced   and   found   to    be   mere 
empty  terrors.     Nothing  more  was  heard  of  them,  and  it  was 
twenty  years  before  the  discontents  of  which   they  were  the 
outward  sign  again  came  to  the  front.     The  political  horizon 
was  more  clear  of  clouds  than  at  any  previous  time  in  the 
century,  and  the  commercial  prosperity  of  the  United  Kingdom 
was  very  marked — whether  it  came,  as  some  said,  from   the 
triumph  of  the  free-trade  principles  which  Peel  had  introduced, 
or,  as  others  maintained,  from  the  confidence  which  had  been 
inspired  in  the  world  by  England's  easy  and  triumphant  passage 
through  the  troubles  of  1848.     There  was  a  general  feeling  of 
buoyancy  and  optimism  in  the  air,  and  a  widespread  confidence 
in  the  future.     It  may  appear  strange  to  us,  who  remember  the 


lo6        ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

thwarted  hopes  of  1848-9,  that  English  pubHc  opinion  thought 
that  the  Continent  had  settled  down  into  quiet.  But  it  is 
certain  that  the  most  confident  language  was  used  concerning 
the  future  reign  of  peace  and  goodwill  among  the  nations  of 

Europe.  The  success  of  the  first  great  inter- 
tion  of^8^/"    fictional  exhibition,  held  in  London  in   185 1,  was, 

by  a  rather  shallow  train  of  thought,  interpreted 
as  a  sign  of  the  advent  of  a  new  era,  in  which  war  was  to  be 
abandoned  as  an  anachronism,  and  the  nations  were  to  con- 
tend against  each  other  only  in  the  peaceful  field  of  industry, 
settling  all  their  disputes  by  arbitration. 

This  foolish  confidence  was  first  shaken  by  the  events  of 
December,  185 1.  Louis  Napoleon,  showing  himself  in  his  true 
The  Second  colours  after  three  years  of  dissembling,  suddenly 
empire  in  suppressed  the  French  republic.  He  had  packed 
h  ranee.  ^j^^   army  and    the  civil   service    with   his   hired 

partisans  till  all  was  ready  for  a  coup  d'etat.  He  struck 
promptly  and  most  unscrupulously ;  the  republican  leaders 
were  thrown  into  prison,  their  partisans  who  attempted  resist- 
ance were  shot  down  by  hundreds  in  the  streets  (December  2), 
and  a  military  dictatorship  was  set  up.  Twelve  months  later 
the  usurper  declared  himself  emperor  under  the  name  of 
Napoleon  HI.  (1852). 

The  President's  stroke  for  power  brought  about,  by  a  curious 
chance,  the  dismissal  of  Palmerston  from  office.     The  great 

foreign  minister  had  more  than  once  of  late  years 
of  N^oleon  drawn  down  rebuke  on  himself,  for  taking  impor- 
III.  by  Lord    tant  political  steps  without  giving  either  the  queen 

or  his  colleagues  fair  warning.  Now  he  offended 
them  more  bitterly  than  ever,  by  notifying  to  the  French 
ambassador  his  recognition  of  the  new  government,  without 
taking  the  trouble  to  obtain  the  previous  sanction  of  the 
sovereign  and  the  ministry.  His  conduct  was  indeed  deserving 
of  much  blame,  for  the  recognition  of  the  new  Bonapartist 
regime  was  not  a  thing  to  be  lightly  and  heedlessly  granted ; 


PALMERSTON   DISMISSED.  107 

but  Palmerston  was  glad  to  see  a  strong  government  super- 
seding the  sham  repubhc  of  1848-51,  and  seems  to  have 
determined  to  force  the  hands  of  his  colleagues. 

Lord  John  Russell,  furious  at  such  an  act  of  insubordination, 
dismissed  Palmerston  from  office  (December  19,  185 1).    But  he 
had  not  foreseen  that  he  was  thereby  likely  to 
bring  about  his  own  fall.    The  late  foreign  minister  Palmerston's 
played   on   him    the    same    trick    that  the   Pro-  pa.ll  of 
tectionists  had  played  on  Peel  in   1846.     A  few  Lord  John 
weeks  later  (February  16)  Palmerston  led  a  con-  niinistrf. 
siderable  number  of  his  friends  and  supporters 
into   the   opposition   lobby,  to    vote   with   the    Conservatives 
against  a  Militia  Bill  which  Lord  John  had  introduced.     The 
measure  was  rejected,  and  the  Whig  minority  had  to  resign 
(February  16,  1852). 

If  Sir  Robert   Peel  had  still  been  alive,  the  Tories  would 

have  had  a   chance  of   recovering  their  ancient  power.     But 

that  great  statesman  had  been  killed  by  a  fall  from  _      ,     ^  _. 
,.     1  ^  TT-,1    /T  OX     Death  of  Sir 

his  horse  on  Constitution  Hill  (June  29,   1850).   r^  Peel— 

His    party    was    still    broken    up    by   the    feud  Lord  Derby's 

between  Free-traders  and  Protectionists,  and  the 

two  halves  would  not  co-operate  with  each  other.      The  queen 

called  on  Lord  Derby,  the  head  of  the  latter  section,  to  form 

a  ministry,  which  he  and  Disraeli  (Lord  George  Bentinck,  their 

other  leader,  was  already  dead)  proceeded  to  attempt.     They 

held  office  for  a  few  months  (March  to  November,  1852),  but 

soon  had  to    retire,   as  they   did  not  at  any  time   possess  a 

majority  in  Parliament.     A  combination  of  the  Whigs  and  the 

Peelite   Conservatives   swept  them  out  of  power  before  they 

had  any  opportunity  of  leaving  their  mark  on  English  policy. 

Their  short  term    of  office,   indeed,  is  only  remembered  for  / 

Disraeli's  ingenious  financial  schemes,  whereby  he  for  the  first 

time  won  the  respect  of  the  country,  and  came  to  be  considered 

as  something  more  than  an  able  adventurer.     It  is  also  worth 

noting    that  while   they   were   in   power   the   great   Duke   of 


lo8        ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

Wellington  passed  away  (September  14),  having  long  survived 
Death  of  the  ^^^  ^^^  other  statesmen  of  the  generation  which 
Duke  of  had    fought    through   the    Napoleonic   wars   and 

Wellington.     ^^^^^  ^j^^  ^^-j  ^^^^  ^^^^^-^^^  followed  them.     In  his 

later  years  his  political  errors  had  been  forgotten,  and  he 
enjoyed  the  respect  and  esteem  of  the  whole  nation,  which 
only  remembered,  when  thinking  of  him,  the  glories  of  Assaye, 
Salamanca,  and  Waterloo. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

EARLY    VICTORIAN    ENGLAND. 
1852. 

When  we  survey  the  nineteenth  century  from  its  last  year  but 
one,  the  first  fact  that  strikes  us  is  that  its  earUer  half  was  a 
time  of  much  more  rapid  and  sweeping  change 
than  its  second.     We  have  now  in  our  narrative  ^he^fi^st  half 
passed    the    dividing  -  line    between    them,    and  of  the  nine- 
reached  the  year  1852.     The  most  cursory  glance  ^^^     ^^"" 
is  enough  to  show  us  that  the  difference  between 
the  England  of  1852  and  the  England  of  1899  is  far  less  than 
that  between  the  England  of  1801  and  that  of  1852.     Almost 
all  the  great  movements,   social,   economic,  and  ^q^-^^i  a.nd 
political,  which  have  given  the  century  its   cha-  political 
racter,  were  well  developed  before    the   time   of  "movements, 
the  Crimean  War.     It  is  much  the  same  with  literature — all 

the  greater  writers  of  the  century  had  started  on  ,  . 
,    .  ,     r         1        1  X  T   •  Literature, 

their  career  before  that  date.    In  matters  religious, 

the  High  Church  movement  in    England — the   main   feature 

of    the    century — had    been    well    started :    the 

disruption  of  the  Scottish  Church  into  the  Estab-  movfments 

lished  and  the  Free  Kirks  had  been  completed. 

It   is   the    same   with    the   great   discoveries    and    inventions 

which  have   changed  the  face  of  the    land   and       . 

the  character  of  everyday  life.     The  England  of  discoveries 

1 80 1  knew  not  the    steamboat  and  the  railway,  ^."^  inven- 

the  electric  telegraph  and  illuminating  powers  of 


no        ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

gas;  the  England  of  1852  was  habitually  employing  them  all, 
though  it  had  still  much  to  learn  in  the  way  of  perfecting 
their  use. 

The  greatest  change  of  all,  the  transformation  of  the  United 
Kingdom  from  a  state  mainly  dependent  on  agriculture  to  an 

essentially  manufacturing  community,  is  also  the 
Growth  of  work  of  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
luring-  and  ^^^  have  already  spoken  of.  the  enormous  develop- 
urban  popu-  ment  of  trade  during  the  years  of  the  great 
trade.  French  war,    but    the    prosperity   of  the    landed 

interest  had  also  been  very  great  as  long  as  that 
struggle  lasted,  and  at  its  end  the  number  of  the  inhabitants  of 
the  realm  more  or  less  directly  interested  in  agriculture  was 
still  reckoned  to  exceed  that  engaged  in  manufactures.  The 
great  towns  contained  less  than  twenty  per  cent,  of  the  popu- 
lation of  England,  while  by  1852  they  counted  nearly  forty  per 
cent.,  and  at  the  present  day  have  risen  to  more  than  half  of 
the  total.*  It  was  the  gradual  and  silent  change  in  propor- 
tion between  the  tillers  of  the  soil  and  the  townsmen,  between 
1 81 5  and  1840,  that  made  Free  Trade  inevitable.  When  the 
producers  of  food-stuffs  had  become  a  clear  minority,  it  was 
absurd  that  the  large  majority  to  whom  cheap  corn  was 
essential,  should  be  taxed  for  their  benefit.  The  landed 
aristocracy  strove  long  to  retain  for  agriculture  its  privileged 
position,  and  tried  to  cover  the  material  benefits  which  pro- 
tection brought  to  themselves,  by  patriotic  talk  as  to  the  neces- 
sity for  keeping  England  self-sufficing  in  her  food-supply. 
When  it  became  clear  that  population  was  growing  too  fast  for 
the  kingdom  ever  to  be  able  to  supply  all  its  own  needs,  so 
that  some  amount  of  foreign  aid  must  always  be  called  in,  the 

*  In  1891  the  purely  rural  "Sanitary  Districts"  of  England  had  only 
11,076,315  inhal)itants  out  of  a  total  population  of  29,000,000.  The  total 
of  the  great  towns  in  1811  had  been  about  1,850,000  out  of  a  total  popu- 
lation of  io,coo,ooo.  In  185 1  they  had  risen  to  be  over  6,000,000  out  of 
a  total  of  17,000,000 


INTERNAL   COMMUNICATIONS.  in 

cry  for  protection  had  obviously  become  impossible  and  etfete. 
When  the  Derby  ministry  of  1852  made  no  open  attempt  to 
undo  Peel's  Free  Trade  legislation,  it  was  realized  that  the  old 
system  was  quite  dead. 

We  have  pointed  out  in  an  earlier  chapter  that  the  develop- 
ment of  new  mechanical  inventions,  and  the  improvement  of 
machinery,  which  gave  our  British  manufactures  steam  and 
their  first  start,  mostly  date  from  the  end  of  the  the  transport 
eighteenth   century,   and    were   already   at   work       &oo"S- 
during  the  years  of  the  great  French  war.     But  the  application 
of  steam  to  the  transport  of  goods,  both  by  water  in  the  sea- 
going steam-vessel,  and  by  land  in  the  railway  train,  gave  an 
enormous  impetus  to  our  factories.     These  novelties  start  the 
one  from  the  second  and  the  other  from  the  third  decade  of 
the  century.     Down  to  18 12,  heavy  goods  could  r^.^.    ... 
only  be  transported  within  the  kingdom  by  road  of  inland 
or  by  canal.     Both  methods  were  slow  and  costly,  ^^^"sport. 
the  former  especially  so;  the  canal  system  had  of  late  been 
much   developed,   but   there   are   many  parts  of  the   land  in 
which   physical   conditions  made   the   construction   of  canals 
impossible.      In  hilly  districts,  however  favoured  they  might 
be   by    mineral    wealth,    good    water-power,    or  other   natural 
advantages,  roads  must  be  steep  and  difficult,  and  canals  must 
cost  a   prohibitive    sum.     It  was   very  hard   to  develop,  for 
example,    a   coal-field,    if  it   was   remote   from   the   sea   and 
situated  in  a  mountainous  district. 

The  case  was  the  same  with  goods  destined  for  foreign 
markets.  Only  places  specially  favoured  by  their  nearness 
to  a  great  harbour,  or  their  easy  accessibility  by  difficulties  in 
canals,  could  readily  move  their  products  to  the  sea  the  way  of 
and  place  them  on  ship-board.  When  once  stowed  ^°^^^S^"^  ^• 
on  the  vessel,  they  were  at  the  mercy  of  the  wind  and  weather : 
since  only  sailing  ships  existed,  their  time  of  arrival  at  the 
foreign  port  was  uncertain;  often  it  might  be  protracted  for 
months   beyond   the  expected  time.     The  time  and  the  cost 


112         ENGLAND   IN    THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

of  transport  were  things  which  even  the  most  experienced 
merchant  could  not  accurately  calculate. 

The  improvement  in  the  means  of  transport  began  slightly 
earlier  on  sea  than  on  land.  After  many  experiments  and  half- 
The  first  successful    trials,    the    steamboat     emerged   as   a 

steamboats  regular  method  of  conveyance  towards  the  end 
and  railways.  ^^  ^^^^  ^^^^^  French  war.  The  earliest  paddle- 
wheel  steamers  were  employed  for  river-navigation  alone. 
Their  first  use  was  seen  in  America  al:)Out  1807,  but  five  years 
later  the  Co)net  commenced  running  up  and  down  the  Clyde. 
Steam  used  ^^^  possibilities  of  the  invention  were  soon 
for  ocean  grasped,  and  it  was  in  a  very  few  years  applied 
voyages.  ^^    ocean    navigation,   at  first   for  short  voyages, 

but  ere  very  long  for  the  longest  possible  distances.  The  first 
steamer  crossed  the  Atlantic  as  early  as  181 9,  but  for  some 
time  the  problem  of  coal-carrying  baffled  the  naval  architect, 
and  steamers  on  an  oceanic  voyage  were  expected  to  eke  out 
their  coal  by  using  sails  when  the  wind  was  favourable.  It  was 
not  until  twenty  years  later  that  the  problem  was  completely 
solved,  and  the  great  steamship  companies  began  to  be  formed  : 
the  Royal  Mail  Packet  Company  started  in  1839,  the  Peninsular 
and  Oriental  and  the  Cunard  Companies  in  1840.  By  1852 
most  of  the  passenger  traffic  and  the  transport  of  all  valuable 
and  perishable  goods  had  passed  under  the  charge  of  steam, 
the  old  sailing  vessels  being  relegated  to  the  carrying  of  bulky 
and  cheap  commodities — such  as  coal  or  timber — whose  rapid 
delivery  made  not  much  difference  in  their  price. 

Steam  navigation  shortened  in  the  most  astounding  way  the 
time  required  for  the  transport  of  British  goods  to  the  remotest 
Resulting-  ends  of  the  earth.  It  made  time  a  calculable 
expansion  of  feature  in  commerce,  instead  of  an  element 
British  trade,  ^j^j^^^i^^^^iy  incalculable.  Freights  could  be  esti- 
mated with  an  accuracy  and  minuteness  hitherto  impossible ; 
orders  could  be  carried  and  executed  at  half  their  former  cost. 
Hence  British  commerce  was  able  to  invade  many  new  markets, 


STEAM    SUPERSEDES    SAILS.  113 

and  to  compete  with  foreign   manufactures  in   regions  vrhose 
remoteness  had  once  handicapped  the  development  of  trade. 

The  poUtical  effects  of  steam-navigation  are  another  branch 
of  its  influence  that  cannot  be  neglected.     It  made  the  govern- 
ment of  colonies  and  dependencies  infinitely  more  „  ,.  .     , 
,        •  •     J    r        1       Political 

easy,    by    shortening   the   tmie    required   tor   the  effects  of 

exchano^e   of  question    and   answer  between   the  steam-navi- 

gation. 
local  and  the  imperial  government.     The  change 

had,  no  doubt,  certain  drawbacks ;  it  rendered  the  meddling 
interference  of  the  central  authority  in  matters  of  petty  detail 
more  possible,  and  tended  to  make  weak  officials  refer  every- 
thing home,  instead  of  using  their  own  initiative.  These 
developments,  however,  have  only  become  really  dangerous 
since  the  electric  telegraph,  a  generation  later,  placed  White- 
hall in  direct  communication  with  every  colonial  capital. 
Meanwhile,  steam  had  done  nothing  but  good  when  it  placed 
Calcutta  at  six  weeks'  instead  of  six  months'  distance  from 
London,  a  feat  accomplished  after  1845,  when  the  Peninsular 
and  Oriental  Company  adopted  the  "  Overland  Route "  by 
Alexandria  and  Suez,  abandoning  the  long  voyage  round  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope. 

It  is  curious  to  find  how  late  steam  was  applied  to  our  war 
navy.  Before  the  screw  superseded  the  paddle-wheel,  and 
before  armour  had  been  invented,  both  the  wheels  Emplovment 
of  the  steamer  and  her  driving-machinery  were  of  steam  in 
much  exposed  to  hostile  shot  and  shell.  Hence  war-vesse  s. 
it  was  held  that  the  type  was  too  fragile  for  battle,  and  the  old 
sailing  ship-of-the  line  retained  its  place  till  the  Crimean  War. 
Steamers,  when  at  last  introduced,  were  only  used  as  tugs  and 
tenders,  and  were  expected  to  keep  to  the  rear  when  fighting 
was  in  progress.  The  first  sea-going  steam-ship  in  the  navy 
was  built  as  late  as  1833.  The  first  new  line-of-battle  ship 
driven  by  steam  was  only  launched  in  1852;  this  vessel,  the 
Agamemnon,  was  fitted  with  the  screw,  which,  since  1840,  had 
already  begun  to  supersede  the  paddle-wheel.     But  it  was  not 


114        ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

till  the  idea  of  covering  warships  with  armour  was  conceived 
that  the  Admiralty  finally  ceased  to  emi)loy  the  old  sailing- 
vessels,  of  the  type  that  Nelson  had  loved,  as  the  main  force  of 
the  navy. 

Astounding  as  were  the  changes  wrought  by  the  invention  of 
steam-ships,  the  daily  life  of  the  world  has  been   even   more 

influenced  by  the  appearance  of  the  railway  and 
railways^         ^^^'^    steam-locomotive.      Two    ideas    had    to    be 

combined  for  the  production  of  this  new  device : 
tramways,  on  which  waggons  were  drawn  by  horses,  had  been 
known  since  1801  ;  steam-locomotives,  which  lumbered  along 
the  high-road  like  modern  traction-engines,  had  first  been  seen 
in  1803.  The  notion  that  the  locomotive  could  be  made  to  drag 
trucks  along  the  tramway-line  was  the  initial  idea  of  our  whole 
railway  system.  The  experiment  was  tried  at  first  only  on  the 
smallest  scale  in  quarries  and  coal-mines.  It  was  successful, 
but  attracted  no  great  attention  till  182 1,  when  George 
Stephenson,  the  father  of  railways,  built  the  first  line  of  any 
appreciable  length,  to  connect  the  two  north-country  towns  of 
Stockton  and  Darlington.  This  venture  proved  so  successful 
that,  four  years  later,  Stephenson  was  employed  to  design  a 
railroad  to  join  Manchester  with  Liverpool.  This  undertaking 
was  completed  in  five  years,  and  in  September,  1830,  the  first 
train  was  run.  By  a  deplorable  chance,  it  killed  Huskisson,  the 
great  Tory  champion  of  free  trade.  Engines  had  already  im- 
proved so  much,  that  trains  of  1830  could  travel  at  what  was 
then  considered  the  dangerous  and  break-neck  rate  of  thirty 
miles  an  hour. 

The  first  promoters  of  railways  had  imagined  that  they 
would  be  mainly  employed  for  carrying  goods  ;  that  passenger- 
j^      .  .    traffic  would  form   an  important  branch  of  their 

of  passenger    business  does  not  seem  to  have  occurred  to  them, 
traffic.  ry^^^^  earliest  first-class   carriages  were  old   stage- 

coaches fastened  down  to  trucks,  while  third-class  passengers 
were  conveyed    in    open    vans  like   those    now   employed    to 


DEVELOPMENT  OF   RAILWAYS.  115 

carry  cattle.  It  was  only  the  enormous  and  unexpected  influx 
of  travellers  that  led  to  the  construction  of  proper  carriages 
for  their  convenience.  From  the  moment  that  the  Liverpool 
and  Manchester  railway  proved  a  great  success,  lines  began  to 
be  laid  all  over  the  country.  The  public,  which  had  once  been 
sceptical  as  to  the  whole  matter,  hastened  to  subscribe  money 
for  every  railway  scheme  that  could  be  broached,  even  for 
those  which  were  obviously  not  likely  to  pay.  The  great 
period  of  expansion  lay  between  1830  and  1850,  and  by  the 
later  date  all  the  present  main  lines,  except  the  "  Midland  " 
and  the  "  London,  Chatham,  and  Dover,"  had  come  into  exist- 
ence. Two  great  panics  caused  by  over-speculation  occurred 
in  1836  and  1845,  but  the  development  of  the  national  railway 
system  was  such  a  genuine  and  such  a  profitable  thing  that 
such  troubles  only  gave  it  a  momentary  check. 

Railways  can  go,  thanks  to  the  skill  of  the  modern  engineer, 
into  any  corner  of  the  earth  where  there  is  traffic  sufficient  to 
make  them  pay.  Hence  their  creation  opened  out  numerous 
corners  of  Great  Britain  which  physical  difficulties  had  hitherto 
kept  in  seclusion  and  poverty.  Wherever  coal  and  iron  existed, 
they  could  now  be  utilized.  Wherever  manufactures  are 
produced,  they  can  easily  be  conveyed  to  the  centres  of  home 
consumption  or  to  the  seaports  which  send  them  to  foreign 
lands.  Not  the  least  important  side  of  railway  extension  was 
that  it  made  possible  the  easy  transfer  of  labour  from  place  to 
place.  Down  to  1830  the  population  of  England  had  not 
been  migratory ;  men  seldom  moved  far  from  the  region  where 
they  had  been  born  and  bred.  But  with  the  sudden  appearance 
of  means  of  quick  and  cheap  locomotion,  it  became  easy  for 
the  working  classes  to  go  far  afield.  Even  in  remote  country 
districts  the  hitherto  stationary  rural  classes  began  to  move, 
mainly  in  order  to  invade  the  towns,  where  labour  was  better 
paid,  and  life  more  lively  and  bustling,  if  not  more  attractive 
in  other  ways. 

The  easy  intercommunication  between  regions  hitherto  kept 


Ii6        ENGLAND    IN   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 

apart  led  to  the  combination  of  the  workmen  in  various  Unes 
Trades  ^^  manufacture    into    "  Trades   Unions,"  for    the 

unions  and  purpose  of  securing  by  united  action  advantages 
^  "  ^^'  which  the  individual  or  the  men  of  a  single  district 

could  not  wring  from  their  employers.  Such  associations  had 
once  been  prohibited  by  Act  of  Parliament,  and  it  was  only  in 
1824  that  they  became  legal.  Their  power  from  the  first  was 
very  great,  but  has  not  always  been  wisely  used.  Excellent 
for  securing  the  fair  rise  in  wages  during  times  of  prosperity, 
they  have  often  tried  to  prevent  the  equally  rational  fall  in 
wages  during  periods  of  stagnation  and  adversity.  Strikes  set 
on  foot  for  such  objects  may  ruin  the  employer,  but  are  also 
bound  to  starve  the  employed,  since  trade  cannot  be  carried  on 
at  a  loss.  It  is  hopeless  to  endeavour  to  force  the  manufacturer 
to  pay  more  than  the  state  of  the  market  enables  him  to  give. 
If  the  strike  under  such  circumstances  is  persisted  in,  the  branch 
of  industry  in  which  it  occurs  must  fail,  and  it  is  almost  certain 
that  the  profits  formerly  made  in  it  will  be  transferred  to  the 
foreigner.  In  their  earlier  days  Trades  Unions  had  another 
very  legitimate  sphere  of  oi)erations,  in  dealing  with  the  abuses 
and  oppression  which  prevailed  in  many  factories.  The  law 
had  not  yet  taken  notice  of  many  evil  features  of  the  new 
manufacturing  system  which  had  sprung  up  during  the  great 
French  war.  Overcrowding,  over-long  hours  of  work,  insanitary 
conditions  of  life,  careless  supervision  in  dangerous  employ- 
ments, were  all  rife.  Against  such  criminal  negligence  on  the 
part  of  employers  the  Unions  could  bring  pressure  to  bear,  and 
did  so  with  the  best  results. 

The  larger  amount,  however,  of  the  legislation  for  the  reform 
of  factory  life  was  due  rather  to  the  improved  spirit  of  public 

ojjinion  than  to  the  direct  pressure  of  the  Trades 
Acte    ^^  °^^  Unions.    The  same  humanitarian  feeling  which  led 

to  the  abolition  of  negro  slavery,  or  to  the  reform 
of  the  criminal  laws,  led  men  to  take  a  legitimate  interest  in 
the  welfare  of  the  workers  in  great  towns.     Believing  tliat  every 


THE   PENNY    POST.  117 

Englishman  was  responsible  for  any  unnecessary  misery  inflicted 
on  his  poorer  countrymen,  philanthropists  like  Lord  Shaftesbury 
led  the  agitation  for  the  restriction  of  child-labour,  the  inspection 
of  mines  and  factories,  and  the  abolition  of  such  abuses  as  the 
payment  of  wages  in  kind  instead  of  money.  Allusion  has  been 
made  in  an  earlier  chapter  to  these  reforms,  most  of  which  were 
carried  out  between  the  years  1830  and  1850. 

Along  with  them  may  be  named  several  other  typical  develop- 
ments of  the  nineteenth  century,  which  show  the  general  rise 
in  the  conception  of  social  life.  Capital  punish-  qj-j^^j.  chases 
ment,  which  had  been  restricted  to  a  comparatively  of  social  im- 
few  offences  since  Peel  began  his  reforms,  was  P^'ovement. 
practically  abolished  for  all  crimes  save  murder  and  treason  in 
1 841.  The  last  execution  for  forgery  had  taken  place  twelve 
years  before,  in  1829.  The  barbarous  mutilation  of  the  bodies 
of  traitors  was  last  seen  at  the  execution  of  Thistlewood  and 
his  gang  in  1820.  The  detestable  practice  of  duelling  barely 
survived  into  the  forties.  Drunkenness  ceased  to  be  tolerated 
in  polite  society,  and  a  series  of  Acts  starting  in  the  "  thirties  " 
have  slowly  succeeded  in  making  it  less  the  typical  national 
vice  of  Great  Britain  than  it  was  in  the  early  years  of  the 
century.  Brutal  amusements  like  prize-fighting  have  shown  a 
gratifying  tendency  towards  disappearance.  In  every  case 
public  opinion  has  outrun  legislation,  and  the  good  effected 
has  been  as  much  the  result  of  social  pressure  on  the  individual 
as  of  the  punishments  inflicted  by  the  law. 

A  few  words  must  be  spared  to  give  some  account  of  two 
inventions  of  no  mean  importance,  which  started  early  in  the 
reign  of  Victoria,  and  have  done  much  to  modify 
the  daily    life  of   England.      The   first    was    the  ^gt.^^""^ 
introduction  of  the  penny  post  in   1840,  after  a 
long  agitation  led  by  Rowland  Hill,  who  spent  several  years 
in  convincing  obstinate  post-office  officials  that  a  uniform  low 
rate  for  all  letters  delivered  within  tkft  kingdom  would  cause 
gain,  and  not  loss,  to  the  exchequer.    Down  to  1840  letters  were 


ii8        ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 

charged  with  sums  varying  from  4^.  to  is.  Sd.  In  that  year 
the  penny  rate  was  accepted,  and  by  1842  the  number  of  letters 
sent  through  the  post  had  tripled  itself.  A  few  years  later  the 
increase  had  grown  so  great  that  a  handsome  and  ever-growing 
profit  was  realized.  The  first  penny  letters  were  obliged  to  be 
despatched  in  government  envelopes  covered  with  an  elaborate 
pictorial  design,  but  after  a  few  months  the  much  more  con- 
venient adhesive  postage  stamp  was  invented,  and  superseded 
completely  the  older  plan  (1841).    The  electric  telegraph  started 

as  a  practical  scheme  about  three  years  later  than  the 
telegraph!^^^     penny  post.     It  was  originally  worked  by  private 

companies,  not  by  the  government  post-ofiice.  In 
1843  ^^^^  fi^st  line  was  built,  covering  the  twenty  miles  between 
Paddington  and  Slough.  Seven  years  later  the  network  of  poles 
and  wires  covered  the  whole  kingdom ;  and  in  1851  the  first 
submarine  cable  was  laid  from  Dover  to  Calais.  It  is  almost 
impossible  for  us  to  conceive  the  change  made  in  everyday 
life  by  the  introduction  of  these  cheap  and  quick  methods  of 
communication.  The  only  thing  that  can  be  said  against  them 
is  that  they  have  killed  the  ancient  and  elegant  art  of  descriptive 
letter-writing  as  practised  by  our  grandfathers. 

Any  account  of  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  which 
omitted  to  notice  its  extraordinary  fertility  in  literature  of  the 

highest    class    would    be    very    incomplete.       No 

Uie^ooenin^    period  in  English  history  shows  such  a  cluster  of 

of  the  nine-      great    names ;  none    save     the     EHzabethan    age 

een     cen-      deserves  to  be  named  along  with  it.     The  period 

before  the  great  French  war  had  been  a  singularly 
dull  one  ;  only  a  few  writers  like  Burns,  Sheridan,  Cowper,  and 
Burke  had  given  promise  of  the  great  outburst  that  was  at 
hand.  But  the  generation  which  grew  to  manhood  in  the 
stress  of  the  struggle,  or  was  born  while  it  was  still  in  progress, 
seems  to  have  gathered  inspiration  from  the  general  stir  and 
tumult,  intellectual  and  political,  of  the  times.  Even  those 
whose   range  of  topics  lay  among  subjects  which  did  not  at 


POETS   OF   THE   EARLY   NINETEENTH    CENTURY.    119 

once  reflect  the  spirit  of  the  age,  were  none  the  less  deeply- 
affected  by  it.  In  the  earliest  poems  of  Wordsworth  and 
Southey,  written  before  the  eighteenth  century  was  quite  run 
out,  we  trace  first  a  profession  of  faith  in  the  principles  of  the 
French  Revolution,  and  a  litde  later  a  recantation  of  the  error, 
as  they  fall  into  line  with  the  prevailing  national  sentiment 
and  adopt  a  strongly  British  tone. 

Sir  Walter  Scott,  the  first  of  the  greater  poets  to  break  into 
verse  in  the  new  century,  was  inspired  not  only  by  a  romantic 
affection  for  the  picturesque  side  of  mediaeval 
history,  but  by  an  ardent  patriotism  which  led 
him  to  sing  of  the  events  of  the  great  war  as  they  passed  by 
him.  It  must  be  confessed  that  his  inspiration  was  not  usually 
at  its  best  when  he  dealt  with  such  themes  in  the  "  Vision  of 
Don  Roderic  "  or  "  Waterloo."  Lord  Byron  and  Shelley,  men 
of  the  younger  generation,  showed  the  influence  of  the  times  in 
a  different  way.  The  former  was  so  deeply  bitten 
by  discontent  for  what  he  called  the  "  Age  of 
Bronze,"  that  he  abused  Wellington,  and  called  Waterloo 
"bloody  and  most  bootless."  But  his  protest  against  the 
common  national  feeling  of  his  day  in  this  respect  is  only  a  part 
of  his  general  attitude  of  somewhat  morbid  and  affected  opposi- 
tion to  the  whole  state  of  English  society  and  politics.  Posing 
as  a  misunderstood  genius  and  a  censor  of  his  times,  Byron  was 
almost  bound  to  fall  foul  of  the  patriotism  that  had  enabled  us 
to  fight  through  the  great  war.  It  is  some  consolation  to  see 
him  in  his  last  years  doing  something  practical  for  liberty  in 
the  Greek  war,  instead  of  merely  carping  at  the  honest 
enthusiasms    of  his    contemporaries.      Shelley,   on    the    other 

hand,  was  not  merely  a  critic  of  his  times,  but  _,    „ 

r       1-  •     1        1  ,  ,        Shelley, 

an  active  apostle  of  political  and  moral  anarchy. 

It  is  a  thousand  pities  that  the  lot  of  such  a  poet  should  have 

been  cast  in  the  days  of  the  French  Revolution.     The  most 

futile  and  extravagant  doctrines  of  the  French  school  had  a 

fatal  attraction  for  his  high-strung  and  hysterical  mind,  and  he 


120        ENGLAND    IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

lavished  a  wealth  of  splendid  imagery  on  adorning  the  cheapest 
revolutionary  ideas.  Piercing  below  his  glorious  diction,  we 
find  the  old  protest  against  all  laws,  human  and  divine,  which 
formed  the  stock-in-trade  of  the  followers  of  Rousseau.  Shelley 
was  made  for  something  better  than  denouncing  "  the  crimes 
and  tyrannies  of  priests  and  kings."  But  from  the  day  when 
he  was  expelled  from  Oxford  for  sending  his  tract  on  "  The 
Logical  Necessity  of  Atheism "  to  the  master  of  his  college, 
he  had  an  incorrigible  tendency  to  take  up  every  perverse  idea 
that  was  in  the  air.  It  is  thus  that  it  came  to  pass  that  a 
poet  who  possessed  the  greatest  mastery  over  language,  the 
profoundest  sympathy  with  nature,  the  widest  range  of  thought, 
and  the  most  abundant  flow  of  beautiful  images  and  ideas, 
exercised  no  influence  whatever  over  his  own  generation. 

It  is  kindest  to  Byron  and  Shelley  to  remember  that  the 
bulk  of  their  writings  were  produced  in  the  days  when  Lord 
Liverpool  was  prime  minister.  Toryism  presented  in  such  a 
dull  shape  had  in  it  enough  to  irritate  minds  less  susceptible 
than  those  of  poets. 

It  is  astounding  to  note  how  the  flow  of  literature  of  the  first 
class  which  begins  during  the  great  French  war  continues  during 
the  early  half  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Beside 
writers  ^^^    great    names   which    we    have    mentioned, 

Keats  and  Moore  in  poetry,  Charles  Lamb  and 
de  Quincey  among  essayists  and  descriptive  writers,  Sir  Walter 
Scott  and  Jane  Austen  among  novelists,  all  start  within  a  few 
years  of  each  other.  The  period  of  1810-30  is  set  thick  with 
literary  masterpieces,  and  long  before  the  survivors  of  the 
generation  which  produced  them  had  passed  away,  the  men  of 
the  younger  age,  whom  we  may  call  the  early-Victorian  writers, 
had  begun  to  work.  Tennyson's  first  book  of  poems  was 
})roduced  twenty  years  before  the  death  of  Wordsworth; 
Dickens's  earliest  sketches  were  published  only  five  years  after 
Scott's  latest  novel.  Lord  Macaulay  and  Carlyle  overlap 
Lamb  and  de  Quincey.     Thackeray,  Robert  Browning,  Charles 


THE   CHURCH    AND   THE    "EVANGELICALS."         121 

Kingsley,  and  John  Ruskin  all  produced  some  of  their  best  work 

before  1852.*     Most  of  these  authors  of  the  Early-Victorian 

time  were  destined  to  go  on  writing  into  the  second  half  of  the 

century,  but  all  had  arrived  at  maturity  in  the  early  years  of 

Victoria's  reign,  and  belong  in  their  character  and  ideas  to  the 

earlier  and  not  the  later  period  of  it.     We  shall  note  further  on 

the  lamentable  dwindling  of  the  harvest  of  first-rate  literature 

in  the  last  decades  of  the  age. 

Any  account  of  social  change  in  England  in  the  first  half  of 

the  nineteenth  century  must  take  notice  of  the  extraordinary 

changes  which  passed  over  its  religious  life  during  „  ,.  . 

.    ,        .     .     ,      •      •         ,1       •    1  r  Religious 

the  period.     At  its  beginning,  the  only  vital  force  movements 

in  the  land  was  the  Evangelical  Movement,  which  — Evangeli- 

calism. 
had   affected  the  Established  Church   almost   as 

much  as  the  dissenting  bodies.     The  revival  of  active  energy, 

which  had  commenced  with  Wesley  in  the  middle  of  the  last 

century,  had   reached   its   height   by.  1800.      It  had  induced 

multitudes  to  leave  the  national  Church  in  order  to  join  the 

new  Methodist  sects ;  but  there  had  remained  behind,  within 

the  establishment,    hundreds    of  clergy   who    carried   on   the 

Wesleyan  tradition,  and  at  the  commencement  of  the  century 

they  Avere  the  only  energetic  party.     But  the  Evangelicals  were 

never  the  majority  of  the  clerical  body ;  there  still  survived  a 

considerable  leaven  of  the  spiritual  apathy  of  earlier  Georgian 

times.     The  type  of  vicar  who  regaled  his  congregation  with 

dry  moral  essays  by  way  of  sermons,  and  who  regarded  all 

*  It  may  be  worth  while  to  give  the  dates  of  these  authors,  to  show  the 
way  in  which  they  overlap.  Scott  died  in  1832,  Lamb  in  1834,  Southey  in 
18^  Wordsworth  in  1850,  de  Quincey  in^t^Q.  Macaulay  (1800-18-^9) 
began  to  write  in  1824,  Diokens  (1812-70)  pub'ished  his  "  Sketches  by 
Boz"  in  1836.  Tennyson  (1809-92)  issued  his  "Poems,  chiefly  Lyrical," 
in  1830.  Thackeray  (1811-63)  produced  his  first  book  in  1840,  and  his 
great  "  Vanity  Fair  "  in  1846-48.  Thomas  Carlyle  (1795-1881)  was  already 
writing  essays  in  1822,  and  issued  "Sartor  Resartus"  in  1831.  Charles 
Kingsley  (1819-75)  started  his  work  with  "The  Saints'  Tragedy"  in  1847, 
Browning  (1812-89)  was  producing  verse  as  early  as  1833.  Ruskin's 
"  Modern  Painters  "  began  in  1843,  and  was  finished  in  1846. 


122        ENGLAND    IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

enthusiasm  with  distrust,  was  still  very  common.  There  is  no 
doubt  that  the  general  moral  level  of  the  clergy  had  gone  up 
in  the  reign  of  George  III.  Scandals  were  no  longer  frequent, 
and  gross  neglect  of  duty  was  rare.  But  outside  the  ranks  of 
the  Evangelicals  fervour  and  activity  were  wanting.  No 
adequate  effort  had  been  made  to  cope  with  the  difficulties 
arising  from  the  growth  of  the  new  manufacturing  towns,  or  the 
expansion  of  London.  For  the  first  time  in  English  history,  a 
whole  generation  had  grown  up  in  such  centres  of  population 
which  was  quite  out  of  touch  of  religious  instruction,  and  was 
tending  towards  practical  heathenism. 

For  dealing  with  such  a  problem,  organization  and  cor- 
porate action  were  as  necessary  as  zeal  and  fervour,  and  want 
Defects  of  ^^  organization  was  unfortunately  the  weak  point 
the  Evan-  of  the  Evangelical  party.  In  energetic  missionary 
gelical  party.  ^^,qj.j.  ^^  ^^^  individual  hearer  they  were  admir- 
able and  untiring,  but  just  because  their  message  of  conversion 
was  to  the  individual,  they  failed  to  build  up  any  system  of 
Church  work  and  Church  life.  They  had,  moreover,  never 
succeeded  in  getting  command  of  the  higher  posts  in  the  Church, 
and  were  much  hampered  by  the  dislike  for  movement  of  the 
bishops,  most  of  whom  were  still  political  nominees  or  mere 
classical  scholars,  as  in  the  earlier  Georgian  age.  The  Evan- 
gelical party  were  always  to  the  front  in  schemes  for  philan- 
thropic and  benevolent  ends.  They  had  energetically  supported 
the  abolition  of  the  Slave  Trade  and  the  passing  of  the  Factory 
Acts  ;  they  had  been  vigorously  pressing  missionary  enterprise 
in  foreign  lands,  and  were  mainly  responsible  for  the  general 
rise  in  the  moral  tone  of  society  during  the  earlier  decades  of 
the  nineteenth  century.  But  there  was  room  in  the  Church  for 
other  developments,  which  they  had  been  unable  or  unwilling 
to  supply. 

The  first  of  these  was  that  of  the  "  Broad  Church "  move- 
ment, which  was  running  strongly  all  through  the  middle  of 
the  century.     Its   exponents    disliked   the    narrow  scheme   of 


THE   OXFORD   MOVEMENT.  I23 

salvation  and  the   emotional    type    of   piety  which  were  cha- 
racteristic of  the  Evangelical  school,  and  wished  to 
make  the  Church  comprehensive,  tolerant,  mode-  Jjj^  "j^f 
rate,  and  learned.     The  earlier  men  of  the  Broad  movement — 
Church  school  laid  more  stress  on  the  study  of  phi-  Whateley— 
losophy  and  logic  as  the  basis  of  natural  religion. 
The  greatest  name  among  them  is  that  of  Archbishop  Whateley 
(1787-1863).      The  later  leaders   devoted  more  time  to  the 
historical   development   of  dogma,    the   textual  study   of  the 
scriptures — sometimes  carried  out  in  a  rather  destructive  spirit, 
— and  the  reconciling  of  science  and  religion.      They  never 
had  much  influence  with  the  masses,  to  whom  their  message 
was    not    directed,    but  largely  affected    the    thought    of  the 
educated  classes.     Only  a  few  of  their  leaders,  indeed,  tried  to 
popularize  Broad  Church  views ;  the  only  man  of  real  prosely- 
tizing spirit  among  them  was  the  poet  and  novelist   Charles 
Kingsley.     The  enthusiasm  which  he  displayed  for  all  social 
progress  and  moral  reform  was  not  characteristic  of  the  whole 
school,  who  were  distinctly  scholars  rather  than  missionaries. 

A  revolt  against  Evangelical  doctrines  on  very  different  lines 
was  to  win  far  greater  influence  than  the  Broad  Church  school 

has  ever  attained.    This  was  the  so-called  "  Oxford 

The* 'Oxford 
Movement,"  which  started    in  the  fourth  decade  ]VT^^nen£^ 

(1833-34)  of  the  century  among  a  knot  of  young 

university  men,  of  whom  several  of  the  most  prominent  were 

fellows  of  Oriel  College.     The  inspiring  thought  of  the  new 

High  Church  school — they  soon  got  the  name  of  Tractarians, 

from  a  series  of  tracts  in  which  their  views  were  set  forth — was 

a  beUef  in  the  historic  continuity  of  the  Church.     They  refused 

to  accept  the  common  Protestant  doctrine  that  the  Established 

Church  started  with  Henry  VHI.  and   the  Reformation,  and 

wished  to  assert  its  entire  identity  with  the  church  of  Augustine 

and   Anselm.     As  a  logical  consequence,  they  were  ready  to 

accept   all   early  and  even  mediaeval  doctrine  which  was  not 

specially  disavowed  by  the  Anglican  formularies.     The  Church 


124         ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

of  England,  as  a  living  branch  of  the  Catholic  Church,  they 
thought,  could  not  refuse  to  accept  anything  that  had  primitive 
usage  on  its  side.  Special  stress  was  laid  by  them  on  two 
doctrines,  equally  repugnant  to  their  Low  Church  and  to  their 
Broad  Church  contemporaries — the  Real  Presence  in  the 
Sacrament  and  the  Sacrificial  Priesthood  of  the  Clergy.  Such 
views  had  been  held  in  the  England  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
but  they  had  been  almost  forgotten  in  the  eighteenth,  and 
sounded  like  a  revival  of  popery  to  most  men. 

Enthusiastic  study  of  the  Early  Fathers  and  of  other  sources 
of  dogma  formed  part  of  the  Tractarians'  scheme  of  life.  Their 
The  leaders  teaching  found  wide  acceptance  among  the  clergy, 
of  the  Trac-  as  was  natural  when  the  new  doctrine  so  greatly 
tarians.  magnified  the  priestly  office.    But  the  fervent  piety 

and  earnest  lives  of  the  early  leaders  of  the  movement,  such  as 
John  Keble,  John  Henry  Newman,  and  Hurrell  Froude,  would 
have  attracted  followers,  even  if  there  had  been  much  less  to 
be  said  in  favour  of  their  views.  All  through  the  forties  there 
was  bitter  strife  between  the  Tractarians  and  their  opponents, 
who  openly  accused  them  of  paving  the  way  for  the  submission 
of  the  English  Church  to  Rome.  This  notion  was  certainly 
confirmed  by  such  writings  as  Newman's  celebrated  pamphlet, 
in  which  he  proved,  by  a  series  of  elaborate  but  unconvincing 
arguments,  that  the  "  Thirty-nine  Articles "  were  so  loosely 
worded  that  a  man  might  hold  all  the  more  prominent  Roman 
doctrines  and  yet  stay  within  the  Anglican  establishment.  The 
author  did  not  convince  himself,  as  a  few  years  later  he  went 
over  to  Rome,  followed  by  a  number  of  his  more  prominent 
disciples,  and  died  a  cardinal  in  1890. 

But  the  great  bulk  of  the  High  Churchmen,  headed  by 
Keble,  the  model  of  parish  priests,  and  Pusey,  the  most  learned 
Th  H>h  ^^  their  theologians,  did  not  break  away  from 
Church  the  Church  of  their  birth,  but  stayed  within   it. 

^^^  ^'  They  were  determined  to  win  recognition  for  their 

views  within   the  Anglican  communion,  and  fully  succeeded. 


DISRUPTION   OF   THE    SCOTTISH    KIRK.  125 

Ere  the  movement  was  thirty  years  old  it  had  transformed 
the  face  of  reHgious  England.  The  High  Churchmen  had 
from  the  first  shown  a  capacity  for  combined  action  and 
orderly  co-operation  which  the  Evangelical  party  had  never 
displayed.  It  came,  no  doubt,  from  the  fact  that  their  doctrines 
laid  great  stress  on  the  corporate  unity  of  the  Church,  and  the 
duty  of  working  in  unison  and  setting  aside  personal  prejudices, 
while  the  Evangelicals  had  relied  on  individual  effort,  and  had 
never  given  their  party  any  effective  organization.  Though 
not  more  zealous  in  parochial  or  missionary  work  than  their 
elder  rivals,  the  Tractarians  proved  far  more  successful.  They 
did  admirable  work  in  the  way  of  stirring  up  neglected  districts, 
building  new  churches,  putting  an  end  to  careless  and  slovenly 
forms  of  worship,  and  raising  the  general  standard  of  activity 
expected  from  the  clergy.  It  is  by  their  splendid  practical 
work  in  this  direction  that  they  have  raised  themselves  to  so 
high  a  place  in  the  Anglican  communion,  for  public  opinion 
seldom  fails  in  the  end  to  recognize  and  reward  such  merit. 
Zeal,  of  course,  has  not  always  been  tempered  with  discretion ; 
but  eccentricities  on  the  part  of  a  minority  cannot  blind  us  to 
the  admirable  effect  of  the  High  Church  movement  as  a  whole : 
it  has  certainly  left  the  National  Church  in  a  condition  of 
greater  health  and  activity  than  it  has  enjoyed  at  any  time 
since  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne. 

While  the  Tractarian  movement  had  been  fighting  its  first 
battles  in  England,  the  Established   Church  in   Scotland  had 
been  rent  asunder  by  a  struggle  quite  as  fierce, 
though  turning  on  very  difi'erent  points  (1834-43).  ^^g^cJJ'urch 
The  question  at  issue  north  of  Tweed  was  the  of  Scotland 
relation  between  the  Stafe  and  the  Church,  taking  ^•'JJ^  ^^^® 
shape  in  a  dispute  as  to  the  right  of  presentation 
to  benefices.     The  system  by  which  ministers  were  nominated 
by  a  patron  instead  of  chosen  by  the  congregation  seemed  so 
objectionable  to  a  large  section  of  the  Scottish  clergy,  headed 
by   Dr.  Chalmers,  that  when  Parliament  refused  to  give  the 


126        ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

parish  a  veto  on  the  patron's  choice,  they  seceded  from  the 
Established  Church,  and  formed  a  new  denomination  called 
the  Free  Kirk  (May  i8,  1843).  Thus  they  established  a  com- 
munion free  from  all  State  control,  but  only  at  the  terrible 
cost  of  splitting  Scotland  into  two  spiritual  camps,  and  setting 
up  rival  kirks  and  manses  in  every  town  and  village,  with  a 
consequent  crop  of  bitter  quarrels  that  endured  for  more  than 
a.  generation. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

F-ROM  THE  CRIMEAN  WAR  TO  THE  DEATH  OF  LORD  PALMERSTON. 
1853-1865. 

When  Lord  Derby's  ministry  was  forced  to  resign,  in  December 
1852,  English  politics  presented  a  spectacle  which  has  never 
been    exactly   paralleled    before   or   since.     The 
Liberals   and    Conservatives   were   each   divided  Coalition  of 
4nto   two    opposing  sections,  kept   apart   by   the  Peehfes— 
most   effective  barrier — the  personal  animosities  Lord  Aber- 
of  their  sectional  chiefs.     After  the  tricks  they  ^^^"'^  minis- 
had  played  on  each  other,  Russell  and  Palmerston 
could  not  easily  combine,  while  the  Peelite  and  the  Protectionist 
Conservatives    still    looked   on  each    other   as   traitors.     The 
Peelites  thought  of  Disraeli  and  his  friends  as  the  betrayers 
of  their  great  dead  leader ;  the  Protectionists  retorted  that  the 
Peelites  had  betrayed   the  old  principles  of  their  party  when 
they  followed  Sir  Robert  in  his  conversion  to  Free  Trade.    But 
every  one  felt  that  the  business  of  the  country  must  somehow 
be  carried  on,  and  after  a  prolonged  deadlock  a  coalition  was 
patched  up. 

Lord  John  Russell  and  Lord  Palmerston  agreed  to  serve 
together  in  the  same  ministry,  but  neither  was  to  be  premier. 
They  took  the  Peelites  into  partnership,  and  gave  the  position 
of  prime  minister  to  Lord  Aberdeen,  who  had  been  Peel's 
lieutenant  at  the  Foreign  Office.  He  was  a  worthy,  well- 
intentioned  man,  and  a  scholar  of  merit,  but  certainly  more 


128        ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINEIEENTH   CENTURY. 

wanting  in  force  and  resolution  than  any  minister  who  had 
taken  the  helm  of  State  since  the  resignation  of  Addington  in 
1804.  In  foreign  politics  he  was  a  great  believer  in  non-inter- 
vention and  masterly  inactivity,  but  he  was  quite  incapable  of 
resisting  his  more  energetic  colleagues  when  they  pressed  and 
worried  him  forward  into  measures  which  he  did  not  approve. 
Several  other  Peelites  were  received  into  the  new  ministry,  the 
most  notable  of  whom  was  William  Ewart  Gladstone,  who  had 
already  acquired  a  considerable  reputation  as  a  financier,  and 
was  now  made  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer.  There  had  never 
been  any  very  essential  divergence  between  the  views  of  the 
Peelites  and  those  of  the  more  cautious  Whigs,  so  that  the  two 
parties  merged  easily  together,  and  in  a  few  years  the  former 
were  absorbed  into  the  ranks  of  their  allies  :  some  of  them, 
notoriously  the  new  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  became  ere 
long  advanced  rather  than  moderate  members  of  the  Liberal 
party. 

The  new  ministry,  combining  as  it  did  all  political  sections 
except  the  Derby-Disraeli  Conservatives,  seemed  very  powerful 
Gladstone's  ^"^  likely  to  last  for  many  years.  It  made  a  most 
financial  triumphant  entry  into  office,  starting  with  a  con- 

measures,  siderable  surplus  and  a  popular  budget  introduced 
by  Gladstone,  who  lowered  or  abolished  a  great  number  of 
import  duties,  in  imitation  of  Peel's  great  measures  of  1844. 
But  he  did  not  carry  out  his  old  leader's  pledge  of  abolishing 
the  income  tax  when  good  times  had  come  round,  and  left  it 
fixed  as  a  millstone  around  the  neck  of  the  middle  classes. 

Before  Lord  Aberdeen  had  been  many  months  in  power, 
signs  of  trouble  began  to  make  themselves  visible  in  the  sphere 
of  foreign  affairs.  The  difficulty  arose  in  Turkey, 
question^  ^^"  where  the  "  Eastern  Question  "  had  never  ceased 
to  be  a  source  of  bickering  between  the  great 
powers  since  the  old  troubles  of  the  Greek  insurrection  in  the 
twenties.  The  Ottoman  empire  had  been  in  so  many  tribula- 
tions since  those  days,  that   there  was  a  fixed  idea  in  many 


THE    EASTERN    QUESTION.  129 

minds  that  it  was  at  the  end  of  its  resources,  and  that  in  a 
few  years  the  sultans  must  vanish  altogether,  or  at  least  pass 
beyond  the  Bosphorus  and  abandon  Constantinople  and  Europe. 
The  consummation  was  devoutly  to  be  wished,  but  no  two 
powers  were  agreed  on  the  manner  in  which  it  was  to  come 
to  pass.  Meanwhile  their  ambassadors  continued  to  intrigue 
against  each  other  with  the  Porte,  as  had  been  the  custom  for 
the  last  century  and  more. 

The  Czar  Nicholas  I.  had  his  own  plan  for  the  dismember- 
ment of  the  Sultan's  realm,  and  for  some  time  had  been 
cautiously   approaching   the    ministers    of    other  j^    .  ^ 

countries,  to  see  how  they  would  take  it.  In  the  Czar  of 
January,  1853,  he  used  more  definite  language  ^"s^^^- 
to  the  English  ambassador  at  St.  Petersburg.  "  We  have  on 
our  hands,"  he  said,  "  a  sick  man — a  very  sick  man  :  it  will  be 
a  great  misfortune  if  one  of  these  days  he  should  slip  away 
from  us,  before  the  necessary  arrangements  have  been  made." 
The  "  necessary  arrangements,"  as  explained  by  the  Czar  in  a 
later  interview,  were  that  the  sick  man's  neighbours  should 
have  settled  beforehand  exactly  what  share  of  his  inheritance 
each  of  them  should  take.  Nicholas  proposed  that  Servia, 
Roumania,  and  Bulgaria  should  pass  under  his  own  suzerainty 
as  dependent  principalities,  while  England  might  take  Egypt 
and  the  island  of  Crete.  The  other  powers,  no  doubt,  would 
be  propitiated  with  similar  slices  of  Turkey. 

The   English    Government  received   these  proposals,   when 
they  were  transmitted  to  London,  in  a  very  frigid  way ;  they 
were  not  prepared  to  stand  in  to  the  bargain,  and  ^ftjfyHe  of 
wished  to  stave  off  the  day  of  dismemberment.  Eng-land 
Nicholas,  nevertheless,  went  on  with  his  scheme,  ^"^  France, 
and  while  secretly  pressing  it  came  into  collision  with  another 
despot,  the  new  Emperor  of  the  French.     Napoleon  III.  was 
at  this  time  anxious  to  make  firm  his  somewhat  uncertain  seat 
at  Paris  by  pursuing  a  spirited  foreign  policy,  and  thought  that 
it  would  not  suit  his  plans  to  let  Russia  assume  the  leadership 

K 


130        ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

in  the  East.     France  had  for  a  long  time  claimed  and  exercised 

a  certain  patronage  over  the  Christians  of  the   Levant,   and 

Napoleon  did  not  intend  that  this  protectorate  should  pass  to 

the  Czar. 

The  first  signs  of  open  opposition  between  the  two  emperors 

took  the  curious  shape  of  a  dispute  as  to  whether  Greek  or 

^   Roman  Catholic  monks  should  be  entrusted  with 
The  kcv  cinQ 
the  star—        the  custody  of  the  great  shrines  of  Palestine.     It 

Menchikoff's   ^as  humorously  said  at  the  time  that  the  war  had 
embassy. 

its  origin  in  a  quarrel  about  a  "  key  and  a  star  " — 

the  former  was  that  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre  at  Jerusalem,  the  latter 

a  large  ornament  in  the  Church  of  the  Nativity  at  Bethlehem. 

But   the  actual  cause   of  rupture   was   the  embassy  of  Prince 

Menchikoff  to  Constantinople ;  he  came  with  orders  to  demand 

a  formal    treaty  granting   to  Russia  the  protectorate  over  all 

the  Christians  of  the  East.     This  measure  roused  the  anger  of 

Lord  Stratford  de   Redcliffe,  the  English  ambassador  to  the 

Porte,  who  was  a  bitter   opponent  of  Russia.     He   and   his 

French  colleague  encouraged  the  Sultan  to  refuse  Menchikoff's 

request,  whereupon  Czar  Nicholas  determined  to  bring  pressure 

on  Abdul-Medjid  by  occupying  Roumania. 

When  his  troops  crossed  the  Pruth  into    Turkish    territory 

(July,  1853),  England  found  herself  quite  unexpectedly  on  the 

verge  of  war.     There  followed  a  long  struggle  in 

The  Rus-         the  English  cabinet  between  Lord  Aberdeen  and 
sians  cross        ,  •  ^-      r       •  •    •  i.        t^  1  ^  rj^i 

the  Pruth—     "^^  energetic  foreign  minister,  Palmerston.     1  he 

Eng-land  and  former,  while  protesting  his  distaste  for  war  and 

the^Turks."     ^^^^  disbelief  in  its  approach,  was  gradually  edged 

on  into  making  a  close  alliance  with  the   French 

emperor,  and  sending  a  strong  detachment  of  warships  through 

the  Dardanelles  up  to  Constantinoi^le  (October  22).     A  few 

weeks    later   the   Russian   Black  Sea  squadron  destroyed    the 

Turkish  fleet  at  Sinope,  whereupon   English  and  French  ships 

passed   the  Bosphorus,   and  compelled  the  Russians   to  take 

refuge  in   the  harbour  of  Sebastopol  (January,   1854).     From 


ORIGIN   OF   THE   CRIMEAN   WAR.  131 

this  action  to  open  war  was  but  a  short  step,  but  it  was  three 
months  before  that  step  was  taken.  Driven  forward  by  Palmer- 
ston,  Lord  Aberdeen  consented  to  join  the  French  emperor 
in  issuing  an  ultimatum  to  the  Czar,  threatening  hostiUties 
unless  he  evacuated  the  Turkish  provinces  which  he  had  seized. 
On  his  refusal,  war  was  declared  (March  27,  1854). 

To  have  to  fight  for  the  maintenance  of  the  corrupt  despo- 
tism of  the  Sultan,  in  company  with  such  a  doubtful  ally  as 
Napoleon  III.,  was  an  unhappy  necessity.     But  it  •povivXsLX 
had  to  be  done,  since  the  Czar  had  determined  to  feeling  in 
carry  out  the  dismemberment  of  Turkey  without      "^  ^ 
the  consent  of  the  other  powers.     So  much  was  his  arrogant 
action  resented  in  England  that  the  war  was  very  popular,  and 
hopeful  persons  even  thought  that  our  alliance  with  the  Sultan 
might   regenerate  Turkey,  a  delusion  which  was    destined  to 
endure  for  a  whole  generation. 

England  was  at  the  moment  very  far  from  being  prepared 
for  active  hostilities.     Our  army  had  seen  no  service  in  Europe 
since  Waterloo,  and  its   organization  was  wholly  ^^^^^^  ^f 
out  of  gear.     The  individual   regiments  were  in  military 
good    fighting    trim,    but    they    were    quite    un-  Preparations. 
accustomed  to  act  together  in  large  bodies,  or  to  face  the  hard- 
ships of  campaigning  in  a  distant  and  thinly  peopled  country. 
The  supply  services  were  in  a  hopeless  state  of  inefficiency ; 
there  was  practically  no  one  who  understood  how  to  feed  and 
clothe  an  army  in  the  field.     But  a  considerable  force,  some 
28,000  men  in  all,  was  hastily  collected  and  sent  to  the  Levant, 
where  they  joined  a  French  army  of  about  the  same  size.     The 
general  placed  in  command  was  Lord  Raglan,  a 
veteran  of  the  Peninsular  War.     He  had  been  a  R^S^n 
distinguished  officer  in  his  day,  but  was  now  sixty- 
six  years  of  age  and  almost  past  service.     He  possessed  tact 
and  good  judgment,  but  not  the  energy  and  force  needed  for  a 
commander  who  had  to  direct  a  combined  army  and  to  deal 
with  the  divergent  views  of  his  French  colleagues. 


132        ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

The  allied  army  was  directed  to  land  in  the  Crimea,  for  a 

double   purpose  :    a    blow  delivered   in    this   direction  would 

_     almost  certainly  call  back  the  Russian  invaders  of 
Invasion  of      _,  .  ,    _      ,     ,    .  ^^  ^  ^ 

the  Crimea Roumama  to  derend  their  own  soil,  and  at  the 

Battle  of  same    time    it   was    desired    that  Sebastopol,  the 

refuge  and  arsenal  of  the  Czar's  Black  Sea  fleet, 

should  be  destroyed.     There  was  also  considerable  advantage 

in  attacking  the  enemy  in  a  remote  corner  of  his  dominion, 

easily  accessible  by  sea,  as  he  would  have  great  difficulty  in 

forwarding    thither  reinforcements    across  the    South    Russian 

steppes,  where  roads  and  railways  were  then  equally  wanting. 

The  Anglo-French  army,  rather  over  50,000  strong,  landed  in 

the  Crimean  peninsula,  unopposed,  on  September  17,   1854; 

three  days  later  they  met  the  Russians  on  the  heights  along 

the  river  Alma.     Prince  Menchikoff,    who  was   in   command, 

showed  himself  not  more  capable  as  a  general  than  he  had 

been  as  ambassador  to  the  Porte  in  the  preceding  year.     He 

failed   to  take  full    advantage  of  his  strong  ground ;    but  his 

adversaries   blundered  almost  as   much,  for  half  the    French 

army  was  wasted  in  a  useless  turning  movement,  and  did  not 

fire   a   shot.      The    redoubts   and    batteries,    how^ever,    which 

formed  the  key  of  the  Russian  position  were  stormed  by  the 

English,   and  the  prince  had  to  retire  with  his  forces  much 

shattered  by  the  terrible  musketry  fire   of  the  victors.     The 

English   had   fought    with    splendid   audacity,  but   had   been 

miserably  handled  by   their  generals,   who    made    themselves 

responsible  for  a  wholly  unnecessary  carnage  among  their  men 

by  not  properly  combining  their  attacks.     Lord  Raglan  himself 

blundered  into  the  centre  of  the  Russian  lines,  where  he  was 

unable  to  communicate  with  his  subordinates,  and  would  have 

been  taken  prisoner  if  the  enemy  had  not  been  culpably  blind 

to  their  advantage  (September  20,  1854). 

After  the  victory  of  the  Alma  the  allies  might  have  entered 

Sebastopol  without  much  trouble,  for  the  demoralized  Russian 

army  withdrew  into  the  interior.     ]>ut  the  French  commander, 


SEBASTOPOL   BESIEGED. 


133 


St.   Arnaud,    refused    to    press   their   retreat,   and   when   the 

alHes   quietly    sat   down   before    Sebastopol   and 

made  preparations  for  a  formal  siege,  Menchikoff  Sebastopol. 

threw  his  battalions  once  more  into  the  fortress, 

and  prepared  to  defend  it  to  the  last.     Thus  began  the  famous 

siege  which  was  to  last  for  no  less  than  eleven  months  (October, 

1854 — September,  1855),  and  to  cost  over  a  hundred  thousand 

lives.     The  first   bombardment  of  the  place  was  undertaken 


SEBASTOPOL 
and  its  Environs, 

1854-1855. 


with  insufficient  resources,  and  ended  in  complete  failure.  Soon 
after  reinforcements  began  to  reach  the  Russians,  mainly 
from  the  army  which  was  now  retiring  from  the  Danube. 
With  the  aid  of  these  succours  Menchikoff  made  two 
vigorous  attempts  to  raise  the  siege,  each  of  which  led  to 
a  battle. 

On  October  25  his  field  army  descended  on  Balaclava,  the 
port  at  which   the  English   were  landing  their   supplies,  and 


134        ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

brought  to  action  the  very  insufficient  force — almost  entirely 
cavalry — which  had  been  left  to  defend  it.     The 

B  3,1 3,C  1 3,  V3.  *-~~" 

The  charge  niain  advance  was  stopped  by  the  heroic  charge 
of  the  Light  of  Scarlett's  brigade  of  heavy  dragoons,  who 
broke  through  and  hurled  back  thrice  theii: 
number  of  Russian  horse.  But  this  gallant  and  successful  feat 
of  arms  was  followed  by  the  disastrous  "  Charge  of  the  Light 
Brigade."  A  vague  and  ill-worded  order  sent  by  Lord  Raglan 
was  perversely  misinterpreted  by  Lord  Lucan,  who  commanded 
the  English  cavalry,  and  he  proceeded  to  hurl  the  670  sabres 
of  the  Light  Brigade  at  the  batteries  which  formed  the  centre 
of  the  Russian  line.  This  mad  project  was  executed ;  though 
encircled  on  three  sides  by  a  concentric  fire  from  the  whole 
hostile  army,  this  handful  of  horsemen  rode  forward  for  a  mile 
and  a  half,  captured  the  guns,  and  broke  up  the  Russian  centre. 
But  no  attempt  had  been  made  to  support  them  with  infantry, 
and  when  their  impetus  was  spent,  these  unfortunate  heroes  had 
to  cut  their  way  back  through  the  enemy  and  return  foiled  to 
the  English  lines.  They  had  lost  113  killed  and  154  wounded 
out  of  670  men :  the  only  wonder  is  that  a  single  trooper  sur- 
vived to  tell  this  tale  of  dire  mismanagement.  • 

Balaclava  was  nothing  more  than  a  drawn  battle,  for  the 
Russians,  though  they  had  failed  to  capture  the  port,  were  able 
Inkerman—  ^^  maintain  their  advanced  position  opposite  the 
"The  sol-  English  base.  Nine  days  afterwards  Menchikoff 
lers  ba  e.  j-j-,.^^;^^.  another  and  a  more  desperate  attempt  to 
break  through  the  besiegers'  lines.  At  early  dawn  on  November 
4,  two  heavy  columns  were  launched  against  the  north-eastern 
corner  of  the  allied  position  on  the  heights  of  Inkerman.  Forty 
thousand  men  in  all  took  part  in  the  attack,  but  the  column 
which  debouched  from  the  town  of  Sebastopol  came  on  the 
ground  long  before  that  which  marched  from  the  open  country. 
Favoured  by  a  thick  fog,  the  approach  of  the  enemy  was  not 
seen  till  they  were  close  upon  the  English  camp.  The  first 
column   was    met   by  the    nearest    troops,  and   checked   after 


BATTLE   OF   INKERMAN.  135 

desperate  fighting  among  ravines  and  hillsides,  where  every 
regiment  had  to  wage  its  own  battle  in  the  blinding  mist. 
Presently  the  rest  of  the  Russian  host  groped  its  way  to  the 
front,  and  at  the  same  time  more  English  troops  came  hurrying 
in  from  other  parts  of  the  siege  hnes.  The  second  clash  was 
even  more  terrible  than  the  first,  but  after  many  hours  of  hand- 
to-hand  fighting  the  assailants  were  again  brought  to  a  check, 
and  French  reinforcements  began  to  come  upon  the  field.  At 
last  the  Russians  recoiled,  thoroughly  beaten,  and  quite  un- 
conscious that  their  40,000  men  had  been  repulsed  by  9000 
English,  aided  in  the  end  of  the  fight  by  7000  French.  The 
victory  was  eminently  glorious  to  the  rank  and  file  of  the 
victors,  for  in  this  "  soldiers'  battle "  no  direction  by  the  com- 
mander-in-chief had  been  given,  and,  indeed,  the  fog  and 
confusion  rendered  it  almost  impossible  for  him  to  exercise 
much  control  over  the  fight. 

After  Inkerman  the  siege  of  Sebastopol  took  a  strange  shape. 
The  allies  were  actually  outnumbered  by  the  garrison  for  the 
winter  months,  and  were  barely  able  to  maintain 
their  lines  round  the  south  side  of  the  city.  The  ff"^^e  troops 
northern  front  was  always  open  for  the  arrival  of 
reinforcements  from  the  interior  of  Russia.  The  winter  was 
one  of  exceptional  rigour,  and  both  sides  suffered  the  most 
terrible  privations.  In  the  long  marches  through  the  snow,  the 
Russian  armies  of  succour  lost  nearly  half  their  numbers  ere 
they  could  get  to  the  front.  The  French  and  English,  on  the 
other  hand,  encamped  on  the  bleak  and  barren  platiau  of 
the  Chersonese,  without  any  shelter  save  their  tents,  and  with 
barely  sufficient  food  to  keep  body  and  soul  together,  were 
slowly  perishing  from  cold,  dysentery,  and  the  perpetual  labour 
in  the  trenches.  The  English  supply  services  broke  down 
altogether,  and  could  not  even  forward  food  to  the  front  up 
the  six  miles  of  road  which  separated  the  port  of  Balaclava 
from  the  siege  lines.  The  men  starved,  even  when  provisions 
by  the  shipload  were  being  thrown  ashore  at  the  base.     During 


136        ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

January  Lord  Raglan  had  to  report  that  of  the  24,000  men 
under  him  only  11,000  were  fit  for  service,  while  13,000  were 
in  hospital.  The  mortality  among  the  sick  rose  to  a  frightful 
percentage,  for  there  was  not  sufficient  shelter  for  them,  nor 
were  the  simplest  medical  comforts  available.  Indeed,  the 
hospitals  both  in  the  Crimea  and  at  Constantinople  were  in  a 
disgraceful  state,  till  volunteer  aid  was  forthcoming  from  England, 
and  Florence  Nightingale  and  her  nurses  brought  some  order 
into  the  chaos. 

When  the  war-correspondents  at  the  front  and  the  private 
letters  of  officers  l-Tt  the  public  into  the  secret  that  the  army 
was  rapidly  dying  off,  for  want  of  ordinary  care 
in  England—  ^^^  vigilance  on  the  part  of  the  home  authorities, 
Lord  Aber-  j^  wild  outburst  of  wrath  followed.  The  nation 
was  rightly  dissatisfied  at  the  way  in  which  the 
war  was  being  conducted.  Sebastopol  had  not  fallen  for  want 
of  a  little  push  and  energy  in  the  days  following  the  victory  on 
the  Alma.  A  fleet  sent  to  the  Baltic  had  failed  to  do  anything 
worthy  of  notice.  Money  was  being  spent  with  both  hands, 
yet  the  army  was  starving.  Some  of  the  misfortunes  of  the 
winter  of  1854-55  were,  no  doubt,  due  to  the  fact  that  the 
soldiers  were  not  accustomed  to  the  hard  life  of  the  field,  and 
that  the  administration  had  no  experience  of  war.  But  much 
more  was  due  to  red  tape,  foolish  formalism,  and  culpable 
slackness  at  home.  The  scapegoats  chosen  by  popular 
clamour  were  the  premier,  Lord  Aberdeen,  and  his  war 
minister,  the  Duke  of  Newcastle.  They  were  forced  to  resign 
their  offices,  though  the  greater  part  of  the  blame  ought  to 
have  been  distributed  among  ignorant  and  obstinate  sub- 
ordinates in  the  home  civil  service,  whom  the  ministers  had 
not  known  how  to  stir  up  into  activity.  Lord  Palmerston, 
whose  name  was  regarded  as  synonymous  with  energy  and 
readiness  to  fight,  replaced  as  prime  minister  the  unfortunate 
disciple  of  Sir  Robert  Peel. 

In  the  sj)ring  of  1855  the  war  went  on  for  some  time  without 


SEBASTOPOL   STORMED.  I37 

marked  success  on  either  side.     The  Czar  Nicholas  was  killed 

off    by    the    hard    winter,    but    his    youn^    son  ^ 

.  .  J        t>  Progress  of 

Alexander   continued   his    policy.     Fresh   troops  the  siege- 
continued  to  pour  into  Sebastopol,  and  the  great   Death  of  the 
engineer  Todleben  so  strengthened  the  place  by  Victor  Ema- 
buildino^  line  after  line  of  earthworks  in  front  of  ""^^  j?/."^ 

•      •  1        r  r  ,  ,  r  ^hC  AlllCS. 

Its  original  front  of  ramparts,  that  the  fortress 
continued  to  increase  instead  of  to  fall  off  in  defensive  power 
as  the  siege  went  on.  The  allies,  however,  did  not  relax  their 
efforts :  the  French  emperor,  whose  popularity  was  bound  up 
with  success  in  the  war,  forwarded  large  reinforcements  to  the 
Crimea.  The  English  Government,  whose  task  was  harder 
because  of  the  very  small  numbers  of  our  standing  army,  con- 
trived to  raise  our  expeditionary  force  to  40,000.  In  May 
the  Sardinian  king,  Victor  Emanuel,  joined  England  and 
France  for  political  reasons— he  was  anxious  to  pose  as  a 
power  of  European  importance,  ar.d  to  win  the  gratitude  of 
France.  A  fine  division  of  his  troops  joined  the  besieging 
army.  But  matters  did  not  come  to  a  head  at  Sebastopol  till 
the  middle  of  the  summer.  In  June  a  new  and  enterprising 
French  commander.  Marshal  Pelissier,  was  appointed.  By  his 
desire,  a  vigorous  attempt  to  storm  the  place  was  made  (June 
17-18);  some  outworks  were  captured,  but  the  main  assault 
failed.  It  was  not  till  September  that  a  bombardment  of  un- 
paralleled vehemence  so  shook  the  Russian  works  that  a 
second  assault  could  be  made.  Meanwhile  Lord  Raglan  died, 
worn  out  by  the  fatigue  and  responsibility  of  a  campaign  which 
was  too  hard  for  a  man  of  his  age  (June  20,  1855). 

On  September  8  the  final  storm  took  place.     The  French, 
massing  30,000  men  on  a  single  point,  carried  the  Malakoff, 
a  fort  which  commanded    the  whole  line  of  de- 
fence :  its  capture  rendered  further  resistance  on   Sebastoool 
the  part  of  the  Russians  hopeless.    But  the  English 
failed  lamentably  at  the  Redan,  which  had  fallen  to  their  share 
in   the   assault.      The   utterly   insufificient   force   sent  against 


138        ENGLAND    IN   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 

it  entered  the  work,  but  was  beaten  out  again  with  much  blood- 
shed, because  no  reinforcements  were  pushed  up  to  its  aid. 
However,  the  fall  of  the  Malakoff  had  settled  the  fate  of 
Sebastopol.  That  night  the  Russians  set  the  place  on  fire 
and  evacuated  it.  Their  army,  however,  still  lay  in  great 
strength  on  the  north  side  of  the  harbour,  and  to  thrust 
it  from  the  Crimea  another  great  battle  would  have  been 
necessary. 

The  effort  was  never  made.  The  French  emperor  had  now 
obtained  the  success  and  military  glory  which  he  had  coveted, 
and  was  anxious  not  to  risk  them  by  any  more 
Jf^P^il^^^  fighting.  To  the  great  discontent  of  the  English 
nation,  which  was  but  just  warming  to  the  work, 
he  insisted  on  opening  negotiations  with  the  enemy.  The 
Czar  was  only  too  glad  to  come  to  terms :  his  troops  had 
suffered  frightful  losses,  his  finances  were  in  disorder,  and  the 
coasting  traffic  of  the  empire,  both  in  the  Baltic  and  the  Black 
Sea,  had  been  annihilated  by  the  raiding  expeditions  of  English 
squadrons.  There  followed  the  unsatisfactory  Peace  of  Paris 
(March,  1856),  by  which  Russia  surrendered  a  small  strip  of 
land  at  the  Danube  mouth,  and  undertook  to  maintain  no  war- 
fleet  in  the  Black  Sea.  This  last  promise  was  certain  to  be 
maintained  only  so  long  as  the  alliance  of  France  and  England 
kept  the  Czar  in  check.  The  Sultan,  on  the  other  hand,  issued 
many  empty  proclamations  as  to  his  intention  to  ameliorate 
the  lot  of  his  Christian  subjects — professions  which  the 
Western  powers  were  at  that  time  simple  enough  to  accept 
as  a  genuine  sign  of  his  intention  to  reform  the  Ottoman 
empire. 

Thus  ended  England's  last  European  war  in  the  nineteenth 
century.  Much  can  be  said  against  its  policy :  the  defence  of 
Folic  of  the  'I'^^^^^^^  despotism,  as  subsequent  events  have 
Crimean  conclusively   proved,    was    not   a  worthy  end    in 

^^^'  itself.     We  were  throughout  the  struggle  utilized 

and  exploited  by  our  selfish  French  ally,  a  thing  that  could 


RESULTS    OF   THE    CRIMEAN   WAR.  139 

have  been  foreseen  from  the  first.  Finally,  we  had  been  forced 
to  conclude  a  peace  on  terms  wholly  inadequate  to  the  sacrifices 
we  had  made.  The  war  had  cost  about  ;^77,ooo,ooo,  and 
had  added  ;£"33, 000, 000  to  the  National  Debt.  More  than 
20,000  British  soldiers  had  perished — the  large  majority,  not 
by  the  bullets  of  the  enemy,  but  sacrificed  by  the  imbecile 
mismanagement  which  starved  them  into  disease,  and  then 
sent  them  to  die  in  comfortless  hospitals.  Our  generals  had 
certainly  made  no  great  reputation  during  the  war,  and  the 
splendid  courage  by  which  the  rank  and  file  fought  their  way 
out  of  difficulties  for  which  they  were  not  responsible,  had  only 
barely  staved  off  disaster  on  more  than  one  occasion.  Never- 
theless, the  war  was  probably  necessary :  it  would  have  been 
impossible  to  leave  Russia  free  to  carve  up  Turkey  at  her  good 
pleasure;  and,  considering  the  state  of  tension  that  had  been 
reached  in  1854,  it  is  more  than  doubtful  whether  Nicholas 
could  have  been  stopped  by  mere  demonstrations  and  diplomacy. 
It  is  true  that  in  1879  a  firm  attitude  and  a  great  show  of  naval 
power  kept  the  Russians  out  of  Constantinople;  but  in  1854 
they  had  not  suffered  so  many  checks,  nor  wasted  so  many 
lives  and  so  much  treasure,  as  in  the  later  war,  so  that  the  Czar 
was  then  much  less  liable  to  pressure  than  was  his  son  at  the 
time  of  the  Treaty  of  Berlin.  The  best,  probably,  that  could 
be  said  for  the  Crimean  war  was  that  it  taught  us  to  know 
some  of  the  worst  points  of  our  military  organization,  and 
raised  the  spirit  of  national  patriotism,  which  had  tended  to 
sink  low  during  the  long  peace  since  Waterloo.  It  certainly 
did  not  bring  about  either  of  the  two  ends  for  which  it  had 
been  undertaken — the  reform  of  Turkey  or  the  permanent 
crippling  of  Russia.  At  the  most  it  staved  off  the  Eastern 
Question,  as  a  source  of  trouble,  for  some  tw-enty  years. 

In  home  politics  the  main  result  of  the  war  was  to  put  Lord 
Palmerston  in  office  for  the  ten  years  that  remained  of  his  long 
life.  Except  for  a  short  interval  in  1858-59,  he  held  the 
premiership   continuously.      This   was   the   nation's    mark   of 


t40        ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY, 
gratitude  for  the  vigour  and  energy  with  which  he  had  conducted 

Suoremacv  *^^  ^^^^  ^^^^^  ^^^  ^^^^  ^^  Lord  Aberdeen  and  the 
of  Lord  exposure    of  the   administrative    scandals  of  the 

merston.  Crimean  winter.  Pahuerston,  though  always 
posing  as  a  Whig,  remained  in  many  points  true  to  the  traditi^^ns 
of  the  Canningite  Tories,  to  whom  he  had  belonged  in  his  youth. 
He  believed  in  a  firm  foreign  policy  and  the  protection  of 
British  interests  wherever  they  were  endangered.  He  thought 
that  political  reform  had  gone  far  enough  in  1832,  and  had  no 
desire  to  tamper  with  the  constitution.  Small  social  and 
economic  reforms  he  could  tolerate,  but  he  always  found 
ingenious  reasons  for  shelving  the  proposals  of  his  more 
ardent  followers  when  they  tried  to  take  up  again  the  sort  of 
legislation  that  had  been  predominant  in  the  "  thirties."  The 
Radical  members  of  his  party  chafed  furiously  against  his 
apathetic  attitude  towards  their  projects,  but  till  his  death  they 
could  never  succeed  in  getting  their  way.  The  fact  was  that 
the  middle  classes,  in  whose  hands  political  power  had  lain 
since  the  Reform  Bill,  were  very  much  of  Palmerston's  way  of 
thinking,  and  had  little  or  no  wish  to  move  on.  They  admired 
the  old  statesman's  bustling  and  occasionally  boisterous  foreign 
policy,  enjoyed  his  slightly  cynical  humour,  and  had  every 
confidence  in  his  sterling  common  sense. 

In  many  ways  it  was  fortunate  that  domestic  politics  were  in 
a  very  quiet  state  bet^-een  1855  and  1865,  for  foreign  affairs 
were  always  in  a  difficult  and  more  than  once  in 
tioS  witlf  ^'  ^  dangerous  condition.  The  source  of  trouble  was 
Napoleon  generally  to  be  found  in  the  tortuous  and  vacil- 
lating line  of  conduct  pursued  by  Napoleon  IIL, 
who  was  always  endeavouring  to  fish  in  troubled  waters,  and 
to  maintain  his  difficult  seat  on  the  French  throne  by  theatrical 
triumphs  of  the  military  or  diplomatic  sort.  Though  he 
maintained  as  a  rule  an  appearance  of  friendship  for  England, 
yet  we  always  found  him  a  slippery  ally,  and  were  at  least 
once  on   the   verge  of  war   with   him.      There   is   always   a 


THE   PERSIAN   WAR.  141 

temptation  to  a  French  military  despot  to  think  of  revenging 
Waterloo. 

Our  foreign  troubles  after  the  Peace  of  Paris,  however,  were 
not  all  due  to  Napoleon.     The  first  was  a  short  Persian  war,  a 
sort  of  after-swell  following  in  the  wake  of  the 
Crimean  struggle.     The  Shah  Nasr-ed-din,  acting  ^^^^  Persian 
under   Russian    influence,   had  tried   to   conquer 
Afghanistan  and  taken  Herat.    To  cause  him  to  desist,  we  sent 
a  small  force  to  the  Persian  Gulf,   which   seized  the  port  of 
Bushire  and  pushed  on  into  the  country,  till  the  Shah,  whose 
troops   showed  little  capacity  for   war,  asked  for  peace  and 
evacuated    Herat    (March,    1857).      The    little   army    under 
Outram   and    Havelock,    which    had    won    this    success,    was 
fortunately  available  for  the  suppression  of  the  Great  Indian 
Mutiny  in  the  following  summer.     Of  that  fearful  convulsion 
we   shall   have  to  speak  in  the  chapter  that  deals  with  our 
Colonial  empire. 

The  second  struggle  in  which  we  became  involved  was  a 
quarrel  with  China  in  1856.  The  governor  of  Canton,  acting 
with  the  usual  stupid  arrogance  and  obstinacy  of 
Chinese  officials,  had  seized  a  vessel  flying  the  ^^r  ^^^"^^^ 
English  flag,  and  refused  to  apologize  for  his  act. 
This  led  to  an  expedition  against  Canton,  and  ultimately  to 
open  war.  But  the  troops  which  were  sent,  in  1857,  for  the 
invasion  of  China  had  to  be  diverted  to  India,  and  it  was  not 
till  the  Mutiny  was  at  an  end  that  we  were  able  to  resume  our 
advance.  In  1858,  however,  a  fleet  and  army  threatened  Pekin, 
and  after  the  forts  of  the  Peiho  river  had  been  stormed,  the 
emperor  asked  for  peace,  and  received  it  on  promising  to 
make  reparation,  and  to  open  several  "  treaty  ports  "  to  English 
trade  by  the  Treaty  of  Tien-Tsing.  These  engagements  were 
never  carried  out,  and  in  1859  we  had  again  to  bring  pressure 
on  the  Chinese.  This  time  we  were  leagued  with  the  French, 
who  had  grievances  of  their  own  in  the  country.  The  Peiho 
forts  were  again  stormed,  Pekin  taken,  and  the  Summer  Palace 


142        ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURV. 

of  the  emperor  plundered  and  burnt,  as  a  punishment  for  the 

treacherous    murder  of  some   British  envoys,   who   had  been 

negotiating   with   the    mandarins.     Convinced  that  the  "bar 

barians"  were  too    strong  for  them,  the  Chinese  court  then 

made    abject   apologies,    paid   a    fine    of    8,000,000   taels    of 

silver,  and  ratified  the  former  treaty  of  Tien-Tsing  (October, 

i860). 

Long  before  the  lingering  Chinese  war  had  ended,  England 

had    been    interested    in   grave   troubles   nearer   home.       In 

January,  18  "5 8,  while  the  Indian  Mutiny  was  still 
Attempted        "'     .      ^'      /   '  .  ^ 

murder  of        I'agmg,  and  all   our  attention  w^as    concentrated 

Napoleon  by   upon  its  suppression,  we  were  suddenly  brought 
Orsmi.  .  11-  .  -11        T^         1       ^ 

mto    collision    with    the    French     Government. 

Some   republican    fanatics    in    Paris,    headed   by   an    Italian 

named  Orsini,  had  made  an  attempt  to  assassinate  Napoleon 

III.  by  hurling  explosive  bombs  at  him  as  he  drove   to  the 

opera.     He  escaped  himself,  but  ten  persons  were  killed  and 

over   one  hundred    injured   by   the   deadly   machines.      The 

French  press  and  people  were  naturally  roused    to  fury,  and 

when  it  was  found  that  Orsini  had  organized  his  plot  and  made 

his  bombs  in  London,  they  turned  much  of  their  anger  against 

England.      The  emperor's  ambassador  wrote  strongly  worded 

despatches  calling  on  Palmerston  to  give  securities  against  the 

repetition  of  such  conspiracies,  and  protesting  that  "  persons 

placed  beyond  the  pale  of  common  rights  and  under  the  ban 

of  humanity  "  found  shelter  in  the  English  capital.     Far  more 

violent  language  was  heard  in  Paris,  and  one  famous  address 

offered    to    the    emperor    by   a   number   of    French   officers 

besought  him    to  let  them  destroy   "  the   infamous   haunt  in 

which  machinations  so  infernal  are  planned." 

These   threats  roused   an  equal  anger  on  this  side  of  the 

Channel,  where  it  was  supposed  that  the  emperor  wished  to 

bully  the  Government  while  our  army  w^as  engaged  in  India, 

and  a  strong  anti- French  agitation  arose.     Palmerston,  however, 

on  this  occasion  did  not  go  with  the  impulse  of  the  moment. 


A   SHORT   CONSERVATIVE   MINISTRY.  143 

He  thought  that  something  should  be  done  to  prevent  London 

from  becoming  the  centre  of  anarchist  plots,  and 

brought   in    his    "Conspiracy    to    Murder"    bill,  '^^^''Con- 

.  °  ^         ■'  '   spiracy  to 

which  made  persons  convicted  of  planning  poli-  Murder"  bill 

tical  assassinations  liable  to  penal  servitude  for  ~Y^f^^^^°^ 
life,  even  if  the  crime  was  to  take  place  be- 
yond seas.  The  measure  was  reasonable  enough  in  itself, 
but  so  strongly  was  English  national  feeling  excited  at  the 
moment,  that  Palmerston's  measure  was  denounced  as  mere 
truckling  to  France.  He  was  beaten  by  a  small  majority  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  many  Liberals  joining  the  Tory  oppo- 
sition, and  had  to  resign  office  (February  19,  1858). 

According  to    the    proper   constitutional    form,  the   Tories, 
headed  by  Lord  Derby  and  Mr.  Disraeli,  were  now  invited  to 

form  a  ministry.     They  complied,  though  the  ex- 

r  u     i:    .   u        1  •  T.        Lord  Derby     > 

periment  was   from  the  first  hopeless,  smce  they  in  office—  yi/^/ 

were  in  a  very  decided  minority  in  the  House  of  Disraeli's 

Commons.       The    gust   of   popular  wrath  which 

had  swept  Palmerston  from   office   soon    blew   over,  and  the 

Conservatives  had  to  recognize  that  they  were  only  in  power 

as  stop-gaps.     Mr.  Disraeli,  however,  by  a  series  of  ingenious 

expedients,   succeeded    in    tiding   the  new  ministry  over  the 

whole  session  of  1858.     In  the  next  year  his  great  idea  was  to 

bring  in  a  Reform  Bill,  which  would  at  once  have  the  result  of 

showing  that  the  Tories  were  not  hopeless  reactionaries,  and  of 

embroiling  the  Liberals  with  the  Radical  wing  of  their  party. 

The  latter  had  long  been   asking  for  such  measures,  and  it 

seemed  that  the  Tories  could  hardly  be  opposed  for  bringing 

them  forward.      Disraeli's  bill   lowered    the    franchise   in    the 

counties,  giving  all  occupiers  of  ^10  houses  the  vote,  but  at 

the  same  time  proposed  to  qualify  as  electors  all  persons  of 

education — graduates    of    universities,    doctors,    lawyers,   and 

ministers    of    religion — as   well   as   all   persons   who   showed 

evidence  of  thrift  by  having  ^60  in  the  savings-bank.      There 

was  a  great  deal  to  be  said  for  these  proposals,  but  the  Liberals 


144        ENGLAND   IN   THE  NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

chose  to  laugh  them  out  of  court  as  "  fancy  franchises,"  and 
when  the  bill  was  rejected,  Lord  Derby  had  to  dissolve 
Parliament  (March,  1859)  and  to  resign,  when  the  new 
House  showed  itself  as  much  in  the  power  of  his  enemies  as 
the  last. 

This  short  Tory  ministry  in  1858-59  is  mainly  remembered 
for  two  useful  pieces  of  work  which  it  carried  out.  The  first 
The  Volun-  ^^^  ^^^  abolition  of  the  East  India  Company, 
teer  move-  and  the  replacing  of  its  administration  in  Hindo- 
"^^"  •  Stan   by  a  new    Imperial    Government    (August, 

1858),  a  step  which  the  Mutiny  had  made  absolutely  necessary. 
The  second  was  the  starting  of  the  Volunteer  movement  in 
the  spring  of  1859.  This  last  was  the  result  of  the  threatened 
rupture  with  France  in  the  previous  year  :  the  nation  had  been 
terrified  at  the  idea  of  being  caught  in  an  unexpected  war  with 
an  unscrupulous  neighbour,  when  the  whole  army  was  abroad. 
By  a  very  logical  and  at  the  same  time  patriotic  impulse,  it 
resolved  to  supply  the  much-needed  army  for  home  defence  by 
taking  arms  itself.  The  moment  that  the  scheme  was  broached 
it  was  received  with  enthusiasm  ;  before  the  end  of  the  year 
180,000  men  had  been  enrolled,  who  undertook  to  arm,  clothe, 
and  train  themselves  at  their  own  expense,  and  to  be  ready  to 
take  the  field  whenever  there  should  be  danger  of  an  invasion 
of  the  realm.  The  result  has  been  to  give  England  a  second 
line  of  defence,  which  is  now  counted  as  a  serious  item  in  the 
national  strength,  though  for  some  years  it  was  not  treated  with 
much  courtesy  by  War  Office  officials,  or  taken  very  seriously 
by  old-fashioned  members  of  the  regular  army. 

When  Lord  Palmerston  returned  to  office  in  1859  with  his 
old  colleagues  at  his  back,  he  found  himself  face  to  face  with 
Th    It  r  ^  great  European  war.     The  French  emperor  had 

war  of  turned  off  on  Austria  the  wrath  which  in  1858  had 

liberation.  seemed  to  be  directed  against  England.  Posing 
as  the  champion  of  the  riglits  of  nationalities,  he  promised  his 
aid  to  Sardinia,  if  she  should  attempt  once  more,  as  in  1848, 


UNION   OF    ITALY.  I45 

to  free  the  rest  of  Italy  from  Austrian  tyranny.  The  great 
Sardinian  minister  Cavour  took  the  hint,  and  began  to  urge  his 
master,  King  Victor  Emanuel,  to  arm.  Remonstrances  by  the 
Austrian  Government  were  soon  followed  by  war,  in  which 
France  at  once  joined.  But  after  beating  the  Austrians  at 
Magenta  and  Solferino,  and  clearing  them  out  of  Lombardy, 
Napoleon  soon  showed  that  he  was  no  unselfish  enthusiast, 
but  a  mere  speculator.  He  suddenly  made  peace^  to  the  great 
disgust  of  the  Italians,  ceded  Lombardy  to  Victor  Emanuel, 
but  paid  himself  by  annexing  to  France  the  Sardinian  province 
of  Savoy,  the  ancient  home  of  his  ally's  ancestors.  Three 
reasons  had  guided  the  emperor  to  this  ungenerous  step :  he 
did  not  wish  to  drive  Austria  to  such  extremity  that  she  could 
never  again  be  his  friend,  and  he  was  somewhat  afraid  lest 
Prussia  might  attack  him  on  the  Rhine  frontier  while  all  his 
army  was  locked  up  in  Lombardy.  Moreover,  he  did  not 
wish  to  create  an  Italian  kingdom  large  enough  to  become 
a  great  European  power.  But  in  this  last  respect  his  selfish 
plans  were  foiled :  deserted  by  France,  the  Italians  finished 
the  work  for  themselves.  A  series  of  insurrections  in  1859-60 
expelled  the  petty  princes  of  Central  Italy,  and  in  the  latter 
year  the  patriot  adventurer  Garibaldi  threw  him-  Qaribaldi— 
self  into  Sicily  with  a  handful  of  followers,  and  The  king- 
overturned  in  that  island  and  in  Naples  the  rule  ^^^  °^  ^*^^y- 
of  the  cruel  and  imbecile  House  of  Bourbon.  In  every  state 
a  popular  vote  hailed  Victor  Emanuel  of  Sardinia  as  King  of 
United  Italy;  only  Rome  and  Venice  failed  to  fall  into  the 
new  kingdom,  since  they  were  held  down,  the  one  by  French 
and  the  other  by  Austrian  bayonets  (February,  1861). 

On  the  progress  of  affairs  in  Italy  the  English  cabinet  and 
nation  looked  with  much  satisfaction,  and  Garibaldi  received 
a  splendid  welcome  when  he  visited  Great  Britain 
in  1862.     But  troubles  were  impending  in  other  insurrectkm. 
quarters  which  were  not  to  end  so  happily.     The 
oppressed   people    of   Poland   made  a    desperate   attempt   at 


146        ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

insurrection  in  1862-63.  Great  sympathy  was  felt  for  them  in 
this  country,  and  I^ord  John  Russell  even  made  intervention 
in  their  favour  with  the  Russian  Government.  But  we  were 
not  prepared  to  go  to  war  with  the  Czar  single-handed,  and 
Napoleon  III.  would  not  listen  to  any  further  schemes  in 
favour  of  oppressed  nationalities  after  his  experiences  in  Italy. 
Our  appeals  were  quietly  passed  over  by  the  Russians,  and 
Poland  was  dragooned  into  submission. 

Much  the  same  humiliation  fell  upon  us  in  another  matter 
in  the  succeeding  year  (1863-64).  The  German  inhabitants 
of  the  duchies  of  Schleswie  and  Holstein  were 
Schleswig-  desirous  of  seceding  from  the  kingdom  of  Den- 
Holstein  mark.     Count    Bismarck,    the   unscrupulous   and 

iron-handed  minister  of  the  new  King  of  Prussia, 
gave  them  armed  help,  and  persuaded  Austria,  for  reasons  of 
national  sentiment,  to  do  the  same.  Against  two  such  enemies 
the  unfortunate  Danes  could  do  nothing  ;  when  their  small 
army  was  driven  northward,  they  made  piteous  appeals  for  aid 
to  the  powers  of  Western  Europe.  England  was  profoundly 
moved  at  the  spectacle  of  the  crushing  of  Denmark  by  the  two 
great  military  powers,  and  proffered  her  good  offices  for  the 
conclusion  of  peace.  On  this  occasion  it  was  hoped  that 
Napoleon  III.  might  give  his  aid,  for  he  was  growing  very 
suspicious  of  Prussia  and  her  prime  minister.  But  once  more 
the  emperor  proved  a  broken  reed ;  he  had  other  schemes  in 
hand,  and  would  not  interfere  to  help  the  Danes.  With  great 
regret  Palmerston  had  to  confess  that  his  intervention  had 
come  to  nothing.  Prussia  and  Austria  forced  Denmark  to 
her  knees,  and  made  her  cede  not  only  the  German  districts 
of  Holstein  and  Schleswig,  but  some  purely  Danish  territory. 
These  acquisitions  the  victorious  powers  then  proceeded  to 
parcel  out  among  themselves,  though  they  had  pretended  to 
take  arms  in  order  to  enable  them  to  attain  their  liberty  as  an 
independent  German  principality. 

Neither  the  Polish  nor  the  Danish  question  had  ever  brought 


THE   AMERICAN   CIVIL   WAR.  I47 

England  within  measurable  distance  of  war.  Palmerston's 
policy  with  regard  to  them,  which  Lord  Derby  ^^^  Ameri- 
rather  harshly  described  as  "  meddling  and  mud-  can  civil 
dling,"  had  never  committed  us  to  any  dangerous  ^^^' 
step.  But  while  these  European  struggles  were  in  progress, 
another  and  a  greater  war  was  raging  across  the  Atlantic,  in 
which  we  were  more  than  once  nearly  involved.  This  was  the 
famous  War  of  Secession,  which  started  in  May,  1861,  and 
lasted  till  April,  1865.  For  many  years  there  had  been  an 
ever-growing  bitterness  between  the  Northern  and  the  Southern 
States  of  the  American  Union.  The  masses  of  the  North  were 
manufacturing  and  protectionist;  the  South  was  ruled  by  an 
aristocracy  of  planters,  was  wholly  agricultural,  and  had  a 
strong  desire  for  Free  Trade.  The  natural  grudges  between 
them  took  form  in  bitter  quarrels  on  two  points,  "  state  rights  " 
and  slavery.  The  Southern  rice  and  cotton  fields  were  worked 
by  slave-labour;  in  the  North  there  was  a  strong  abolitionist 
party,  which  carried  on  a  vigorous  propaganda  against  the 
"divine  institution,"  which  now  only  survived  elsewhere  in 
benighted  regions  such  as  Brazil  and  Cuba.  But  though  the 
question  of  slavery  was  at  the  bottom  of  much  of  the  bitterness 
between  North  and  South,  the  constitutional  dispute  about 
"  state  rights  "  came  much  more  to  the  front  at  the  beginning 
of  the  struggle.  The  wording  of  the  American  constitution 
made  it  quite  possible  to  hold  different  views  as  to  the  powers 
and  duties  of  the  individual  states  whose  alliance  formed  the 
Union.  In  the  South  the  tendency  was  all  in  favour  of  local 
independence ;  in  the  North  more  was  thought  of  the  central 
government  and  the  rights  of  majorities. 

In  i860  the  "  Democratic"  party,  which  mainly  represented 
the  Southern  States,  was  defeated  at  the  presi- 
dential election,  a,nd  Abraham  Lincoln,  a  "  Re-  Lincoln 
pubHcan,"  from    Illinois,  who  was  known  as  an  elected 
opponent  of  "  state  rights "   and  an  abolitionist, 
came  into  power  in  January,  1861.     Seeing  that  the  machinery 


148        ENGLAND    IN   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 

of  government,  which  they  had  of  late  controlled,  was  about  to 
slip  from  their  hands,  the  Southerners  resolved  on  desperate 
measures.  In  the  spring  that  followed,  eleven  States  seceded 
from  the  Union  and  formed  a  new  league,  to  which  they  gave 
the  name  of  the  "  Confederate  States  of  North  America."  The 
Northern  majority  utterly  refused  to  recognize  the  legality  of 
the  secession,  and  set  to  work  at  once  to  crush  the  malcontents 
by  force  of  arms.  War  at  once  broke  out  along  the*  whole 
frontier  from  Virginia  to  Missouri.  At  first  the  Confederates 
proved  fully  able  to  maintain  themselves  on  land,  but  at  sea 
they  were  utterly  outmatched,  for  the  whole  regular  navy 
had  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  North,  which  also  owned 
nine-tenths  of  the  seafaring  population  of  the  States.  The 
Federals  at  once  established  a  blockade  of  all  the  southern 
ports ;  at  first  it  was  intermittent  and  ineffective,  but  it  grew 
more  and  more  real,  till  at  last  "  blockade-runners  "  could  only 
leave  or  enter  the  harbours  of  the  Confederates  by  the  happiest 
combinations  of  luck  and  skill. 

Great  Britain  was  affected  in  the  most  acute  fashion  by  the 
war  of  Secession.  Not  only  were  we  accustomed  to  draw  great 
quantities  of  rice  and  tobacco  from  the  South, 
the  war—  but  the  Lancashire  cotton  industry  was  mainly 
The  cotton  dependent  for  its  raw  material  on  the  American 
plantations.  India,  Egypt,  and  other  Eastern 
producers  were  only  just  commencing  to  appear  in  the  Man- 
chester market  as  serious  rivals  of  the  Western  cotton-grower. 
The  gradual  stoppage  of  the  export  of  the  Southern  cotton 
as  the  Federal  blockade  grew  strict,  began  to  cause  the 
most  terrible  distress  in  Lancashire,  where  many  mills  had  to 
close  from  actual  want  of  stuff  to  keep  their  machinery  going. 
Skilled  artisans  were  thrown  out  of  work  at  the  rate  of  ten 
thousand  a  week,  and  the  evil  seemed  likely  to  grow  worse 
and  worse,  for  the  war  showed  no  signs  of  coming  to 
an  end. 

In  1 86 1,  when  it  became  evident  that  the  Confederates  were 


THE   AFFAIR   OF   THE    "TRENT."  149 

not  likely  to  be  suppressed  in  a  few  months,  as  the  Northerners 

had  hoped,  Lord  Palmerston  had  recognized  them  ^    ,, 

,    „.  ,  .  .  ,  J     ,       Feehng  in 

as  belligerents.     Ihis    action    greatly   vexed  the  England- 
Federals,  who  persisted  in  treating  them  as  mere  X^^  seizure 
,    ,        '    .         \.         ,       ,    .   ,  -r^  ,  T         •    •        of  the  Trent. 

rebels  destitute  of  any  legal  rights,     rub  he  opinion 

on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  was  much  divided  in  its  sympathies 
during  the  war.  To  some  it  appeared  in  the  simple  light  of 
a  struggle  to  abolish  slavery,  and  such  persons  could  not  but 
side  with  the  North.  On  the  other  hand,  many  thought  that  the 
right  of  secession  ought  not  to  be  denied  to  a  unanimous 
people,  and  that  the  South  had  as  good  a  title  to  free  itself  as 
Italy  had  to  drive  out  the  Austrian.  Others,  again,  disliked  the 
Northerners  as  jealous  commercial  rivals  and  bitter  opponents 
of  free  trade,  and  were  glad  to  see  them  in  difficulties.  Poli- 
ticians, too,  were  to  be  found  who  thought  that  the  balance  of 
power  in  the  world  would  be  better  kept  if  the  vast  republic  in 
the  West  spHt  asunder.  On  the  whole,  England  was  not 
unequally  divided  on  the  question ;  if  anything,  the  balance  of 
sympathy  was  on  the  side  of  the  South.  But  this  was  largely 
owing  to  unwise  action  on  the  part  of  President  Lincoln's 
government,  who  did  their  best  to  put  themselves  in  the  wrong. 
In  1862  the  captain  of  a  Federal  man-of-war  committed  an 
extraordinary  breach  of  international  law,  by  stopping  and 
searching  on  the  high  seas  the  English  mail  steamer  Trenf,  in 
order  to  take  from  it  two  Confederate  envoys  who  were  travel- 
ling from  Havana  to  Europe.  The  ship  was  voyaging  between 
two  neutral  ports,  and  the  envoys  were  manifestly  non- 
combatants,  but  the  United  States  authorities  refused  to  see 
the  error  of  their  ways,  and  only  surrendered  Messrs.  Mason 
and  Slidell  after  a  long  and  acrid  controversy,  and  when  Lord 
Palmerston  had  actually  begun  to  hurry  a  considerable  army 
into  Canada.  This  ungracious  act  was  long  remembered  with 
bitterness. 

The  state  of  Lancashire,  too,  was  well  calculated  to  exasperate 
British  opinion.     By  the    summer  of  1862   the  whole  of  the 


I50        ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

cotton  manufacturing  district  was  in  a  state  of  semi-starvation, 
Increase  of  ^^^^  ^^^  cotton  famine  grew  worse  in  the  winter 
the  cotton  that  followed.  The  population  was  only  kept 
famine.  alivQ  by  lavish  charity.     More  than  ^2,000,000 

were  subscribed  for  their  aid,  besides  ^600,000  contributed  by 
Government.  The  distribution  was  so  energetically  and  skill- 
fully made  that  actual  starvation  was  kept  at  bay,  and  the 
death-rate  of  Lancashire  was  no  worse  than  that  of  the  rest  of 
England.  But  the  misery  suffered  was  acute,  and  it  was  not 
till  1863  that  it  commenced  to  abate,  as  cotton  was  brought  in 
from  new  and  distant  sources  of  supply  to  fill  the  place  of  the 
missing  bales  from  Charleston  and  New  Orleans. 

After  balancing  from  one  side  to  the  other  during  the  years 
1862-63,  the  tide  of  victory  began  to  flow  definitely  in  favour 
The  Alabama  ^^  ^^^  Federals  during  1864,  The  South  was 
— End  of  the  exhausted  even  by  her  victories,  and  her  supplies 
^^^'  of  men    and    money   were   running   too    low   to 

enable  her  to  cope  much  longer  with  an  adversary  who  could 
draw  upon  double  her  population  and  four  times  her  wealth. 
In  these  latter  years  of  the  war,  the  desperate  resolve  of  the 
Confederates  to  strike  at  their  victorious  foe  in  every  possible 
manner  was  shown  by  their  reckless  use  of  privateering,  which 
was  destined  to  bring  England  into  trouble,  and  to  give  the 
Federals  a  legitimate  grievance.  It  is,  of  course,  illegal  for 
neutrals  to  fit  out  warships  for  a  belligerent,  but  Southern 
agents  more  than  once  succeeded  in  getting  ships  prepared 
in  English  dockyards,  and  then  passed  out  to  sea  in  order  to 
become  Confederate  privateers.  The  case  of  the  Alabama  is 
the  best  known.  This  vessel  was  denounced  to  the  Govern- 
ment by  the  United  States  minister  as  being  a  disguised  war- 
ship, which  was  indeed  the  fact.  But  the  authorities  were 
unduly  slow  in  ordering  her  detention.  She  slipped  out  of 
Liverpool  by  night,  got  to  sea,  and  became  a  terror  to  Northern 
shipping  for  some  two  years.  For  the  cabinet's  slackness 
England  had  somewhat  later  to    pay  the  tremendous   bill  of 


DEATH   OF   PALMERSTON.  151 

the  Alabama  claims.  The  American  war  came  to  an  end 
April,  1865,  with  the  fall  of  Richmond,  the  Confederate 
capital,  and  the  surrender  of  the  Southern  armies. 

Palmerston  survived  to  see  the  struggle  finish,  but  died  a 
few  months   later  (October   18,   1865) ;    he   had  kept   up  his 
power  of  work  to  the  last,  though  he  had  reached 
the  ripe   age  of  eighty-one.     With  his    removal  p|^ej-°ton 
from  the  scene  a  new  epoch  in  English  politics 
begins,  in  which  foreign  affairs  were  no  longer  to  be  so  all- 
important,  nor   domestic   politics    so   dull   as  they  had  been 
in  the  days  of  the  last  of  the   Whig  prime    ministers.     The 
tendency    towards   democratic    reforms   and    general    change, 
which  Palmerston   had  succeeded  in  stifling  during   his  own 
day,  broke  out  strongly  when  he  was  gone. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

DISRAELI    AND    GLADSTONE. 
1865-1885. 

Modern  politics  in  Great  Britain  may  practically  be  said  to 
begin  at  the  death  of  Lord  Palmerston ;  as  long  as  the  Liberal 
The  old  party  was  still  generalled,  and  to  a  great  extent 

Liberal  officered,  by  the  old  Whigs,  the  great  problems 

P^-rty.  which  had  started  at  the  time  of  the  first  Reform 

Bill  of  1832  were  not  much  pressed  towards  solution.  The 
governments  of  the  last  thirty  years  had  done  much  in  the 
way  of  social  and  economic  reform,  but  they  had  repeatedly 
shelved  the  larger  political  and  constitutional  question  as  to 
whether  Great  Britain  w^as  to  become  a  democracy  or  not. 
In  so  doing  they  were  but  following  the  wishes  of  the  majority 
of  their  constituents.  The  "  ten-pound  householders,"  in 
whose  hands  political  power  had  been  deposited  by  the  first 
Reform  Bill,  were  mainly  drawn  from  the  middle  classes,  and 
had  no  particular  desire  to  see  themselves  swamped  in  the 
electoral  body  by  the  extension  of  the  franchise.  The  farmers 
and  shopkeepers  of  the  United  Kingdom  were  divided  not 
very  unequally  between  the  two  political  camps  :  the  Whig 
majority  among  them,  which  had  been  overwhelming  in  1832, 
was  much  smaller  in  1865,  for  the  old  prejudice  against  the 
reactionary  Toryism  of  Castlereagh  and  Lord  Eldon  had  been 
gradually  forgotten,  except  in  Scotland  and  Ireland,  where  for 
filty  years   an    enormous  preponderance  of  Liberal  members 


THE  TENDEXCY  TO  DEMOCRACY.        153 

was  always  returned.  But  outside  the  body  of  electors  there 
still  remained  the  great  unenfranchised  masses,  the  multitudes 
which  had  been  stirred  by  the  Chartists  in  the  forties,  and 
which  were  now  very  inadequately  represented  in  Parliament 
by  the  Radical  wing  of  the  Liberal  party. 

Political  agitation  generally  languishes  when  times  are 
prosperous  and  wages  high,  and  the  internal  state  of  the 
United  Kingdom  had  been  so  flourishing  of  late  j-^^  unfran- 
that  very  little  had  been  heard  of  the  democratic  chised 
cries  that  had  been  so  loud  in  the  days  of  "^^^^^^* 
Chartism.  But  there  was  always  below  the  surface  a  good 
deal  of  discontent  at  the  present  distribution  of  political  power, 
and  a  certain  survival  of  the  old  Chartist  delusion  that  with 
the  franchise  would  come  practical  and  personal  profits  to 
those  who  were  still  excluded  from  the  voting  lists.  Unless 
we  remember  the  existence  of  this  widespread  feeling  among 
the  masses,  the  change  in  the  policy  of  the  Liberal  party  after 
Palmerston's  death  appears  unintelligible.  Among  the  leading 
men  of  that  party,  and  even  in  the  cabinet  itself,  there  were 
many  politicians  who  were  convinced  that  something  ought 
to  be  done  to  satisfy  these  aspirations.  They  thought  that 
the  attention  of  the  country  had  been  devoted  far  too  much 
of  late  to  foreign  affairs,  and  that  widespreading  measures  of 
internal  reform,  both  constructive  and  destructive,  were  long 
overdue. 

The  most  prominent  man  among  these  advanced  members 
of  the  Liberal  party  was  Mr.  William  Ewart  Gladstone,  who  for 
the  last  six  years  had  been  Palmerston's  Chancellor 
of  the  Exchequer.  He  had  originally  been  a  G?adsto*ne.°^ 
Peelite  Tory,  but  had  followed  Lord  Aberdeen  in 
1852,  and  had  been  absorbed  with  the  rest  of  his  supporters  in  the 
Liberal  ranks.  Once  committed  to  that  party,  he  had  become 
a  member  of  its  progressive  wing,  and  had  for  some  time  chafed 
against  the  policy  of  stagnation  or  of  petty  administrative 
reforms    which    Palmerston    had    imposed   on   his   colleagues 


154        ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 

during  the  last  ten  years.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  he  was 
already  guided  by  the  idea  which  he  openly  formulated  many 
years  later — that  it  is  the  duty  of  a  statesman  to  watch  the 
public  mind,  and  to  endeavour  to  carry  out  the  policy  that 
"the  sufficient  number"  dictates.  Most  politicians  in  England 
have  wished  to  impose  their  own  convictions  on  their  party : 
the  theory  that  the  chiefs  should  make  it  their  duty  to  ascertain 
and  to  carry  out  the  latent  or  half-expressed  wishes  of  their 
followers  rather  than  their  own,  rests  on  the  very  democratic 
notion  that  the  majority  must  always  be  in  the  right,  and  that 
special  political  training  and  individual  knowledge  count  for 
little  in  the  long  run.  It  is  doubtful  whether  Gladstone  would 
have  subscribed  to  this  wording  of  the  idea,  but  his  conduct 
amounted  to  a  practical  carrying  of  it  out.  Put  in  the  vaguer 
form  of  the  aphorism  that  "  We  must  trust  the  people,"  it 
commended  itself  to  him  and  his  followers.  The  Liberal 
watch  wards  in  the  later  sixties  were  "  Peace,  Retrenchment, 
and  Reform  " — a  combination  of  words  that  would  not  have 
sounded  very  pleasantly  in  Lord  Palmerston's  ear,  for  he  was 
a  lover  of  a  spirited  foreign  policy,  a  considerable  spender  of 
money,  and  a  confirmed  doubter  as  to  the  necessity  of  further 
political  changes.  He  saw  what  was  coming,  and  had  remarked 
shortly  before  his  death  that  "  whenever  that  man  (Gladstone) 
gets  my  place,  we  shall  have  strange  doings." 

Gladstone's  reputation  in  1865  rested  largely  upon  his  very 
successful  Free-Trade  budgets  of  the  last  seven  years.  In  a 
p.    ,  ,       time  when  the  national  prosperity  (in  spite  of  the 

popular  Lancashire  cotton  famine  in   1862-63)  had  been 

budgets.  ^gj.y  great,  he  had  been  confronted  with  such  a 

flourishing  revenue  that  he  could  announce  a  surplus  every 
year.  This  surplus  he  had  employed  in  the  most  popular  way, 
by  using  it  to  take  off  nearly  all  the  import  duties  on  food-stuffs, 
such  as  tea  and  sugar,  and  on  articles  of  daily  consumption, 
such  as  paper  and  tallow.  In  all,  between  1859  and  1865,  he 
reduced  the  number  of  articles  on  which  duty  was  paid  from 


GLADSTONE   AND   HIS    BUDGETS.  155 

419   to   48.     Enthusiastic   admiration  was    raised    among  his 

party  by  the  success  of  his  experiment,  for  the  revenue  seemed 

to  increase  the  more  for  every  item  that  he  removed  from  the 

list  of  things  taxable.     We  can  now  see  that  the  sudden  growth 

in  national  wealth,  registered  by  this  rise  of  receipts,  was  to  a 

large  extent  due  partly  to  a  successful  commercial  treaty  with 

France,  partly  to  the  removal  of  the  United  States  from  the 

field   as   a   commercial    rival    during   the    disastrous   War   of 

Secession,      Their   shipping   interest    has    to    this    day   never 

recovered   the   blow,    and    their    carrying   trade    had    passed 

almost  entirely  into  English  hands.     It  is  easy  to  say  now  that 

it  requires  no  extraordinary  genius  to  deal  with  the  series  of 

surpluses  caused  by  years  of  exceptional  prosperity,  and  that 

there  is  no  financial  magic  in  the  wholesale  remission  of  taxation 

on  articles  of  consumption.     To-day,  indeed,  the  murmur  is 

often  heard  that  we  have  cut  down  too  far  the  list  of  dutiable 

articles,  and  trust  overmuch  to  the  small  number  of  commodities, 

such  as  wine,  spirits,  and  tobacco,  which  still  contribute  to  the 

revenue  when   imported.     But    in    1865    Gladstone's   budgets 

seemed  the  cause  rather  than  the  effect  of  national  prosperity, 

and    no    one    ventured   to    doubt   his    financial    omniscience. 

Every  one  who  paid  less  for  his  pound  of  tea  or  his  newspaper 

could  look  upon  him  as  a  personal  benefactor. 

Gladstone  was  not,  however,  destined  to  succeed  immediately 

to  the  vacant    place    of  premier.      The   veteran    Lord    John 

Russell — now    Earl    Russell — still   survived,    and  r      j  t  1, 

'  Lord  John 

though  he  had  consented  to  serve  under  Palmer-  Russell's 
ston,  it  was  not  to  be  expected  that  he  would  ^^^^^^  Bill, 
give  way  to  a  younger  man.  The  Liberal  party  took  him 
as  their  head  in  November,  1865,  and  he  held  ofifice  from 
that  date  till  June,  1866;  the  rest  of  the  ministry  remained 
practically  unchanged.  Russell's  reign  was  destined  to  be 
short:  he  was  still  honestly  devoted  to  the  ideas  of  1832,  and 
brought  in  a  Reform  Bill  destined  to  redeem  the  old  pledges 
of  the    Liberal   party   which   Palmerston  had    so    persistently 


156        ENGLAND    IN   THE  NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

shelved.  It  was  a  very  moderate  measure,  reducing  the 
qualification  for  the  franchise  in  the  counties  to  ^14,  while  in 
the  boroughs  the  house  of  ^7  was  to  be  substituted  for  the 
house  of  ;£io  as  the  lowest  limit  of  occupation  conferring  the 
vote.  It  was  calculated  that  these  changes  would  add  about 
400,000  electors  to  the  2,000,000  already  in  existence,  so  that 
the  balance  of  power  would  still  have  remained  in  the  hands 
of  the  middle  classes. 

The  Tories  naturally  opposed  the  bill,  on  the  ground  that 
it  was  in  no  way  superior  to  their  own  abortive  measure  which 

Disraeli  had  formulated  in  1859.  But  it  is  more 
of  Adulkm?"   surprising  to  find   that  a  section   of  the  Liberal 

party  also  fought  against  it.  A  number  of 
members  who  shared  Palmerston's  views,  and  had  a  rooted 
dislike  to  any  further  advance  in  the  direction  of  democracy, 
declared  that  the  bill  was  wholly  unnecessary,  and  affirmed  no 
real  principle  of  value.  They  banded  themselves  into  a  small 
party  of  thirty  or  forty  strong,  which  Gladstone  in  derision  called 
"the  Cave  of  Adullam" — because  to  it,  as  to  David  of  old, 
fled  "  every  one  who  was  in  distress,  and  every  one  who  was 
discontented."  The  second  reading  of  the  Reform  Bill  was 
only  passed  by  a  majority  of  five  in  face  of  their  opposition, 
and  finally  the  Tories  and  "  Adullamites  "  succeeded  in  carrying 
an  amendment  which  wrecked  the  whole  of  the  Government's 
scheme.  Lord  Russell  thereupon  resigned  (June,  1866),  and 
the  queen  sent  for  the  Conservative  leader,  Lord  Derby,  and 
invited  him  to  form  a  ministry. 

Once  more,  as  in  1858,  Lord  Derby  and  his  lieutenant 
Benjamin  Disraeli  endeavoured  to  compass  the  difficult  feat  of 
L  d  D  b  carrying  on  the  government  of  the  country  without 
prime  a  majority  in  the  House  of   Commons  at  their 

minister.  back.      For  the  Adullamites  refused  to  coalesce 

with  the  Conservative  party,  and,  quite  contented  to  have 
wrecked  Lord  Russell's  Reform  Bill,  fell  back  again  into  the 
Liberal  ranks. 


DISRAELI    AND   HIS   VIEWS.  IS7 

The   tenure    of    office    of    the    Derby-DisraeH    ministry    in 
1S66-6S  forms  an  important  landmark  in  the  history   of  the 
Conservative  party.     It  had   now  quite  outHved 
its    old    traditions :    Protection,   as    a  matter   of  the  new- 
practical  politics,  was  dead ;  mere  opposition  to  Conserva- 
all  change,  on  the  principle  that  all  changes  must 
be  for  the  worse,  had  ceased  to  be  a  necessary  part  of  the 
Tory  creed  since  the  days  of  Peel.     Disraeli  had  long  been 
engaged    in    the    process    which    he    called    "  educating   his 
party" — that    is,    of    substituting    a    positive    programme   of 
measures    to   be   carried   out    for   a   negative    programme   of 
measures  to  be  resisted  and  staved^jjff.     He  always  continued 
to  display  the  greatest  attachment  to  the  old  Tory  principles 
of  loyalty  to    Church   and  Queen^_and   to    show  an  almost 
ostentatious  care  for  the  "landed  int_erest,"  the  farniers  and 
landowners  who  had  long  formed  the  backbojie^of  his  party. 
But  he  brought  to  the  front  two  ideas  which  had  hitherto  formed 
no   very  conspicuous  part   of    the    Conservative   programme. 
The   first   was   the   conception   of    England   as   an    Imperial 
world-power,  interested   in    European   politics,  but  still  more 
interested  in   the  maintenance  and  development 
of  her  vast  colonial  and  Indian  empire.     This  is  —Conserva- 
the  notion  which  friends  and  enemies,  using  the  tism  and  the 
word   in   very   different   senses,    now   call    "  Im- 
perialism."    The  second  ruling  thought  in  Disraeli's  mind  was 
the   conviction  Niiat   the— Cunsefvative    party   ought   to    step 
forward   as  a  rivaPto  the  Liberal  partv  in    commanding  the 
sympathies  and  allegiance  of  the  masses.     This  aim  he  would 
not  carry  out  in  any  democratic  spirit ;  he  did  not  intend  to 
ask  the  people  to  state  its  demands  in  order  that  he  might 
obsequiously  carry  them  out.     But  he  wished  to  persuade  it 
that  the  Conservatives  had  their  own  plans  for  social,  economic, 
and  political  reform,  which  were  just  as  honest  and  far  more 
rational  than   those   of  the  Liberals.     Everything  should  be 
done(5^r  jhe  people,_if^not  dy  the  people. 


158         ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

Each  of  these  great  ideas  of  DisraeU's  was  developed  at  a 
period  very  favourable  for  their  success.     The  Liberal  chiefs 

of  the  generation  which  followed  Palmerston  were 
Enelanders^"  distinctly  wanting  in  a  full  sense  of  the  greatness 

of  the  empire.  They  have  rather  cruelly  been 
called  "  Little  Englanders,"  for  their  dislike  for  expansion  and 
their  timid  colonial  policy.  In  their  zeal  for  economy,  they 
loathed  the  expenses  which  empire  entails.  Some  of  them 
occasionally  talked  as  if  it  was  inevitable  that  our  colonies, 
when  they  grew  strong  enough,  should  "  cut  the  painter  " — as 
the  Americans  had  done  in  1776 — and  refuse  to  follow  any 
longer  in  the  wake  of  the  mother  country.  They  let  the  army 
and  navy  run  so  low  that  in  moments  of  national  danger  we 
found  ourselves  in  a  perilous  state  of  weakness.  An  appeal  to 
the  people  against  such  a  policy  was  certain  of  success,  for  the 
people  has  always  been  convinced  of  the  reality  of  its  imperial 
L"b  lism  destinies.  So,  too,  with  regard  to  domestic 
and  social  matters,  there  were  many  things  which  favoured 
reform.  Disraeli's  appeal  to  the  masses.     The  Liberals  of 

1865  were  ste^eped  in  the  orthodox  political  economy;  they 
were  ready  enough  to  grant  political  reforms,  or  to  carry  out 
Free  Trade  to  its  logical  extreme,  but  many  of  them  shrank 
from  social  reforms,  on  the  ground  that  by  interfering  between 
man  and  man  they  were  sapping  the  moral  responsibility  of  the 
individual,  or  meddling  with  the  natural  law  of  competition 
which  rules  lhe_}\'orld,  or  trying  to  make  the  state  discharge 
functions  for  which  it  is  not  naturally  designed.  The,  old 
Liberal  "  doctrinaires  "  were  very  chary  of  taking  in  hand  the 
kind  of  domestic  legislation  which  would  appeal  to  the 
sympathies  of  th(e.inasses,  so  that  Disraeli  had  a  fair  chance 
of  bidding  for  their  support. 

The  Dcrby-Disracli  ministry  chanced  upon  very  stirring 
times  both  at  home  and  abroad ;  in  the  very  week  in  which 
they  assumed  office  (June  19-26,  1866)  a  great  European  war 
broke   out.     The   greedy  partners,  Austria  and   Prussia,  who 


THE    RISE   OF   PRUSSIA.  159 

had  joined  to  plunder  Denmark  in  1864,  fell  out  over  the 
distribution  of  the  plunder.  Count  Bismarck,  the 
able  and  unscrupulous  Prussian  premier,  con-  between 
trived  to  put  Austria  in  the  wrong,  to  induce  Prussia  and 
Italy  to  attack  her  from  the  rear  in  order  to  re- 
cover Venice,  and  to  fall  upon  her  before  she  was  prepared  for 
hostihties.  The  Italians  were  beaten  off;  but  the  Prussians, 
largely  aided  by  the  "  needle-gun  " — the  first  breech-loading 
rifle  used  in  European  war — went  on  from  victory  to  victory, 
till  they  completely  crushed  the  Austrians  at  the  batde  of 
Koniggratz  (July  3,  1866).  After  a  struggle  of  only  seven 
weeks,  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  asked  for  peace,  and 
obtained  it  on  condition  of  giving  up  his  position  in  Germany. 
Prussia  made  herself  head  of  a  new  "  North  German  Confeder- 
ation," and  annexed  Nassau,  Hesse-Cassel,  Frankfort,  and  the 
kingdom  of  Hanover.  So  ended  the  old  principality  over 
which  the  Guelfs  had  ruled  so  long,  and  whose  fortunes  had 
been  for  more  than  a  century  (171 4- 1837)  linked  with  those  of 
England.  The  Austro-Prussian  war  was  no  concern  of  ours, 
but  its  consequences  deeply  affected  us,  for  Prussia  emerged 
from  it  a  first-rate  power,  which  she  had  hardly  been  during  the 
days  of  the  weak  King  Frederick  William  IV.  (i 840-1 861). 
But  William  I.  and  his  minister  Bismarck  soon  caused  those 
days  of  obscurity  to  be  forgotten. 

The  only  foreign  hostilities  in  which  England  was  engaged 
during  these  years  took  place  in  Africa.      A  half-crazy  despot, 
Theodore,    King   of  Abyssinia,    seized   and    im-  j.^^  Abys- 
prisoned  a  number  of  British  subjects,  including  sinian  expe- 
two   envoys   who   had   been  sent  to  conclude  a     ^  ^°"" 
treaty  with  him.     When  he  proved  deaf  to   all  requests   for 
their    release,    a    small    army   was    sent    against    him    from 
India,  under  Sir  Robert  Napier.     Hampered  more  by  diffi- 
culties   of    roads   and    supplies   than   by   the   enemy,   Napier 
forced   his  way    far   inland   to  the  fortress    of   Magdala,  the 
enemy's  capital.     The  Abyssinian  host  was  defeated  by  the 


i6o        ENGLAND    IN   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 

mere  baggage-guard  of  the  English  force.  The  captives  were 
surrendered,  and  Theodore  blew  out  his  own  brains  when  he 
saw  his  army  dispersed  and  his  stronghold  stormed  (April,  1868). 
Far  more  important  than  this  trifling  war  were  the  domestic 
troubles  of  the  United  Kingdom  in  1866-68.      Ireland,  which 

had  remained  in  the  quiet  of  exhaustion  since 
JJtbrefks?"     ^^^  famine  of  1845  and  Smith  O'Brien's  fiasco  in 

1848,  was  now  in  one  of  her  periodical  fits  of 
effervescence.  It  was  mainly  due  to  encouragement  from 
America  :  when  the  Federal  armies  were  disbanded  in  1865, 
thousands  of  Irishmen,  who  had  gone  through  the  civil  war, 
were  thrown  upon  the  world  with  a  good  military  training  and 
an  ingrained  hatred  for  England.  Many  of  them  engaged  in  a 
scheme  for  raising  rebellion  in  Ireland,  while  others  undertook 
to  invade  Canada  in  order  to  distract  the  attention  of  the 
British  Government.  They  had  hopes  of  being  able  to  drag 
the  United  States  into  the  turmoil,  for  the  ravages  of  the 
Alabama  and  her  consorts  were  bitterly  remembered  across 
the  Atlantic.  Emissaries,  who  crossed  to  Ireland,  enrolled 
many  thousands  of  enthusiastic  young  men  in  the  "  Fenian 
Brotherhood" — an  association  which  took  its  strange* title  from 
the  ancient  name  of  the  tribal  militia  of  the  Celtic  kingdoms 
of  the  Dark  Ages.  Attempts,  which  fortunately  failed,  were 
made  to  tamper  with  the  Irish  regiments  garrisoned  across 
St.  George's  Channel.  But  the  inevitable  mismanagement, 
shirking,  and  treachery,  which  have  distinguished  all  Irish 
risings,  showed  as  clearly  in  1867  as  in  1848  or  1798.  The 
widespread  plans  of  the  Fenians  ended  everywhere  in 
ludicrous  failure.  Some  thousands  of  them  crossed  into 
Canada,  only  to  be  easily  dispersed  by  the  loyal  militia.  The 
United  States  Government,  though  it  did  not  take  adequate 
pains  to  prevent  their  raids,  refused  to  be  drawn  into  collusion 
with  them.  The  insurrection  in  Ireland  only  burst  out  at  one 
or  two  isolated  points,  instead  of  spreading  over  the  whole 
country.     It  resulted  in  no  more  than  some  ill- planned  attacks 


FENIAN    OUTRAGES.  l6i 

on  police-barracks,  and  the  insurgents  fled  into  hiding  when 
the  troops  came  abroad.  Some  strange  incidents  in  England 
attracted  as  much  attention  as  the  futile  rising  across  the  water. 
A  large  number  of  Liverpool  Irish  were  implicated  in  a  hair- 
brained  scheme  for  seizing  the  stores  and  armoury  at  Chester. 
What  they  could  have  done  if  they  had  been  successful  does 
not  sufficiently  appear ;  but  when  1500  of  them  had  collected 
in  the  quiet  old  town,  they  found  the  police  on  the  alert,  and 
heard  that  a  battalion  of  the  Guards  was  expected  from 
London,  whereupon  they  mildly  dispersed,  save  some  dozens 
who  were  unfortunate  enough  to  be  arrested.  The  only 
exploits  in  which  the  Fenians  showed  any  enterprise  were  two 
murderous  attempts  to  release  imprisoned  members  of  their 
society.  On  the  first  occasion  (September  18,  1867)  twenty 
men  with  revolvers  waylaid  a  prison  van  escorted  by  seven 
police,  in  the  streets  of  Manchester,  and  took  out  their  com- 
rades within,  after  killing  one  and  wounding  four  of  the 
unarmed  escort.  The  second  attempt  at  rescue  was  still  more 
reckless,  and  cost  more  lives.  Some  Fenian  prisoners  being 
confined  in  Clerkenwell  jail,  a  gang  of  desperados  placed  a 
barrel  of  gunpowder  against  its  outer  wall  and  exploded  it, 
thinking  that  their  friends  might  escape  in  the  confusion.  The 
prisoners  were  not  released,  but  in  the  neighbouring  street  four 
persons  were  killed,  and  more  than  a  hundred — mainly  women 
and  children — injured  (December  13,  1867).  For  these 
murders  several  Fenians  were  hung.  Those  who  suffered  for  the 
Manchester  crime  are  still  honoured  by  anniversary  services  in 
Ireland,  under  the  name  of  the  "  Marichester  Martyrs."  Deeds 
of  this  kind  were  calculated  to  irritate  rather  than  to  cow  the 
British  Government.  The  Conservative  cabinet  hurried  troops 
into  Ireland  and  raised  special  constables  in  England,  but 
these  precautions  were  hardly  necessary.  It  was  only  at  a 
somewhat  later  date  that  an  English  statesman  was  found  to 
declare  that  murderous  outrages  brought  the  Irish  question 
"  within  the  sphere  of  practical  politics." 

M 


i62        ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

While  the  Fenian  movement  was  giving  trouble,  Disraeli  was 
engaged  in  the  difficult  task  of  governing  without  a  majority  in 
parliament.  That  he  succeeded  in  doing  so  for 
Reform  Bill.  ^^^^  ^^^^  P^^^  ^^  ^^°  years  is  an  astounding  testi- 
mony of  his  dexterity.  All  through  1867  he  was 
engaged  with  his  Reform  Bill,  drawn  up  on  the  same  lines  as 
that  which  he  had  before  proposed  in  1859.  It  differed  from 
Lord  Russell's  scheme  mainly  in  keeping  the  county  franchise 
high  (at  ;£"2o  instead  of  ^14),  and  in  insisting  on  the  "fancy 
franchises "  that  Disraeli  had  sketched  out  in  his  earlier  bill, 
which  gave  the  vote  to  all  persons  owning  ;£tjO  in  the  savings- 
bank,  or  ^50  invested  in  the  public  funds,  or  paying  ^Qi  of 
direct  taxes,  or  who  had  j;eceived  a  J.iberal  education.  All 
those  possessing  these  qualifications  were  to  become  electors 
if  they  were  not  already  on  the  rolls ;  while  if  they  were, 
they  obtained  a  second  vote  in  virtue  of  their  evidence  of 
thrift  or  superior  instruction. 

The  Conservative  Reform  Bill  was  not  so  successful  as 
Disraeli  had  hoped.  Several  members  of  the  Government — 
of  whom  Lord  Cranborne,  the  present  Marquis  of 
intheDadk"  Salisbury,  was  one — resigned  office  because  they 
regarded  the  measure  as  a  concession  to  demo- 
cracy. On  the  other  hand,  the  Liberal  party  declared  that  the 
bill  was  not  sufficiently  broad  and  far-reaching,  and  proceeded 
to  cut  it  about  by  unending  amendments.  Public  opinion  in 
the  large  towns  was  already  excited  on  the  question  of  Reform, 
and  very  shortly  after  the  ministry  had  taken  office,  the  famous 
riot  in  which  the  railings  of  Hyde  Park  were  torn  down  (July, 
1866)  had  reminded  observers  of  the  old  Chartist  days.  Disraeli 
was  very  anxious  to  show  the  world  that  Conservatives  could 
frame  Reform  Bills  as  successfully  as  their  oi)ponents,  and  was 
resolved  to  make  a  serious  bid  for  popularity  with  the  masses. 
Accordingly,  when  the  Liberals  began  to  mutilate  his  measure 
by  amendments,  he  did  not  resign,  but  accei)ted  all  the 
changes,  affirming  that  they  did  not  affect  the  principle  of  the 


DISRAELI'S    REFORM    BILL.  163 

bill.      His  scheme  for  the  double  vote  was    shorn  away,  his 
"  fancy  franchises  "  were  struck  off,  but  he  still  went  on.      He 
was  compelled  to  accept  the  lowering  of  the  household  franr 
chise  to  j£s  i^  ^^^  towns  and  ^12  in  the  coun'ties,  and  to  give     , 
votes  to  all  lodgers  paying  ^10  a  year.     Thus  the  measure/  ^^^^„-^ 
became  very    democratic  in  form,  more  so  than  many  even  ,      j 
among  the  Whigs  desired ;  but  Disraeli  persevered,  and  "  took  /  ,^^^ 
the  Leap  in  the  Dark "  byJbeslQwingJheXranchise  on  the  masses. 
Save  the  agricultural  labourers  in  the  rural  districts,  practically 
^alL  hojiseholders  in  the  United  Kingdom  were  now  given  the 
power_of  becoming  electors.     Among  the  groans  of  timid  Con- 
servatives and  the  scoffs  of  angry  Liberals,   who  complained 
that  Disraeli  had  stolen   the  credit  of  granting   Reform  from 
them,  the  bill  became  law  in  August,  1867. 

For  another  session  Disraeli  continued  to  cling  to  office, 
holding  out  many  schemes  of  social  and  economic  legislation 
which  he  promised  to  put  in  practice.  He  was  ^^^  Liberals 
now  possessed  of  complete  control  over  his  party,  return  to 
for  in  1868  his  aged  colleague  Lord  Derby  °  ^^' 
retired  from  politics,  and  there  was  no  other  member  of  the 
cabinet  who  could  exercise  the  least  influence  over  him. 
But  his  dexterous  parliamentary  tactics  could  not  save  him. 
The  Liberals  seized  on  the  Irish  question,  and  began  to 
clamour  for  remedial  legislation  for  the  sister  island  as  a  cure 
for  the  disease  of  Fenianism.  They  began  with  pointing 
out  the  Established  Church  of  Ireland  as  an  abuse  and  an 
anachronism ;  Gladstone  carried  in  the  Commons  a  resolution 
demanding  its  disestablishment,  and,  defeated  on  this  point, 
Disraeli  could  only  resign  or  dissolve  parHament.  He  chose 
the  latter  alternative  ;  the  new  constituencies  created  by  the 
Reform  Bill  of  1867  gave  the  Liberals  a  crushing  majority  of 
120,  and  the  Conservatives  had  to  retire  from  office  (Decem- 
ber, 1868). 

Gladstone,  coming  into  office  with  such  a  splendid  majority 
at  his  back,  was  able  at  once  to  take  in  hand  all  the  changes 


i64        ENGLAND    IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

and  reforms  for  which  he  and  his  followers  had  been  yearning 
Gladstone  during  the  days  of  Palmerston.  No  party  ever 
prime  came  into  power  with  so  many  pledges  to  fulfil, 

minister.  ^^^^  ^.j^^  Liberals  made  a  conscientious  attempt  to 

discharge  them  all.  They  had  to  prove  that  they  were  the  real 
friends  of  the  people,  and  that  Disraeli  was  a  mere  charlatan. 
"  Peace,  Retrenchment,  and  Reform  "  were  to  reign  everywhere. 

The  first  problem  taken  in  hand  by  Gladstone  was  that 
of  Ireland.  He  held  that  Irish  discontent  was  not  sentimental 
D"  t  br  h  ^^^  national,  but  caused  by  practical  grievances — 
ment  of  the  a  view  which  later  events  have  proved  to  be 
Irish  Church,  untenable.  Then,  however,  the  whole  Liberal 
party  pinned  its  faith  to  the  theory.  The  first  measure  taken 
in  hand  was  the  disestablishment  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  of  Ireland.  As  it  existed  in  1869,  it  was  certainly  an 
odd  anomaly,  for,  though  it  claimed  to  be  the  State  Church  of 
the  island,  not  more  than  one-fifth  of  the  population  belonged 
to  it.  In  spite  of  the  opposition  of  the  Irish  bishops  and 
gentry,  it  was  deprived  of  its  endowments  and  its  ofificial 
status.  But  it  retained  its  churches  and  cathedrals,  and  its 
clergy  received  personal  compensation  for  their  losses.  The 
effect  on  the  Irish  Church  was  excellent :  when  freed  from 
State  control  and  allowed  to  govern  itself  it  showed  unexpected 
strength  and  vigour,  and  has  been  ever  since  a  growing  and 
flourishing  body.  Nonconformist  enthusiasts  who  dreamed  in 
1868  that  the  Church  of  England  might  soon  suffer  the  same 
fate  as  the  sister  establishment,  have  long  since  got  over  their 
disappointment. 

Having,  as  he  hoped,  done  something  to  conciliate  Irish 
Romanists  by  the  Disestablishment  Act,  Gladstone  then  pro- 
ceeded to    deal  with  the  more    difficult  question 

Land  Act        ^^  ^^^  ^^^"'^'      ^^'^    absolute    dependence    of  the 

poor  peasantry  of  Ireland  on  landlords  who  were 

often  absentees,  and  sometimes  careless  of  all  duties  and  bent 

on  raising  the  last  possible  farthing  of  rent,  was  believed  to  be 


GLADSTONE'S    IRISH   POLICY.  265 

the  most  fruitful  source  of  Irish  disloyalty.  By  the  Land  Act 
of  1870,  Gladstone  gave  the  tenant  the  right  to  be  compensated, 
if  his  farm  was  taken  from  him,  for  any  improvements  he  might 
have  made  on  his  holding.  He  also  gave  him  the  right  to  sell 
the  "goodwill"  of  his  land  to  his  successor.  This  made 
the  tenant  a  kind  of  joint-owner  with  the  landlord  of  his  farm, 
since  he  was  given  a  valuable  interest  in  it,  often  worth  many 
times  the  annual  rent.  The  Government  was  also  under  the 
idea  that  prosperity  and  quiet  would  be  promoted  by  the  estab- 
lishment of  peasant  proprietors.  Loans  at  easy  rates  were 
therefore  offered  to  any  one  who  wished  to  purchase  his  farm, 
if  the  landlord  could  be  induced  to  sell. 

This  well-intentioned  measure,  however,  had  not  the  effect 
that  might  have  been    expected.      Instead  of  being  satisfied 
with  their  new  advantages,  the  peasantry  imbibed   a 
the  idea  that  they  ought  to  get  complete  possession  discontent 
of  their  farms  for  nothing.     They  wished  to  see  a  continues, 
violent  end  made   of  all  "  landlordism,"  and  were  not  in  the 
least  grateful   for  Gladstone's  benevolent  wishes.     There  was 
national  sentiment  as  well  as  agrarian  discontent  at  the  bottom 
of  the  trouble.      It  was  very  discouraging  to  the  Liberals  that 
the  year  1870  was  so  rife  in  murders,  outrages,  and  riots  that 
a    "  Peace    Preservation  Act "   had   to   be   passed,  and  extra 
troops  sent  into  the  country.      Attempts  to  bribe  Ireland  have 
always  failed. 

A  less  questkmable  success  was  gained  by  the  Government  in 
their  series  of  Acts  dealing  with  national  education.     These 
were,  qn_the_whole^_yery  beneficent.     A  bill  for 
the  revision  of  endowed  and  grammar  schools,  tion  Acts^^' 
passed  in  1869,  did  a  good  deal  for  the  secondary 
education  of  the  country,  by  bringing  many  well- endowed  but 
inefficient    schools  under  Government   inspection.       But    the 
Elementary  Education  Act  of  1870  was  far  more  important.     It 
affirmed  the  principle  that  the  State  was  bound  to  provide  gra- 
tuitousjnstruction  for  all  the  children  in  the  realm.    Attendance 


i66        ENGLAND    IN   THE    NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

was  made  compulsory,  and  wherever  sufficient  schools  did 
not  ^xist  they  were  built  with  public  money.  In  the  thirty 
years  which  have  elapsed  since  that  day  the  proportion  of 
illiterate  persons  in  Great  Britain  has  gone  down  to  a  neglige- 
able  quantity. 

Another  admirable  domestic  reform  of  the  Gladstone  Govern- 
ment was  the  Ballot  Act.  Down  to  this  period  voting  at 
parliamentary  elections  was  open,  and  the  poll 
Act^  1^2°  extended  over  many  days.  This  arrangement 
gave  ample  scope  for  two  abuses,  intimidation 
and  bribery,  for  it  could  be  at  once  ascertained  how  every  man 
voted.  The  introduction  of -secret  voting  made  intimidation 
almost  impossible,  and  bribery  very  risky,  since  the  buyer  of 
votes  could  neveiL^be  certain  that  the  recipient  of  his  money 
had,  actually  voted  for  him.  A  distinct  improvement  in  the 
purity  and  decency  of  elections  was  seen;  but  the  old  evils 
were  not  wholly  extirpated  till  more  than  ten  years  later,  when 
the  imposition  of  heavy  penalties  on  both  briber  and  bribed 
finally  crushed  the  old  scandals  and  abuses. 

The  sphere  in  which  the  Gladstone  Government  showed 
most  unhappily  was  that  of  foreign  policy.  Indeed,  from  Lord 
^      .  Palmerston's  death  down   to    the   appearance    of 

policy  of  the  Lord  Rosebery,  the  Liberals  were  singularly 
Liberals.  unfortunate  in  their  dealings  with  external  powers. 

They  were  so  wedded  to  a  consistent  peace  policy,  that  it 
required  no  ordinary  provocation  on  the  part  of  a  foreign 
state  to  stir  them  up  into  remonstrance,  much  more  into 
resistance.  The  fact  was  known  abroad,  and  regularly  traded 
upon  by  our  neighbours. 

The  most   notable  event  in   the   history  of  Europe   which 

occurred  during  the  tenure  of  office  by  the  Gladstone  ministry 

was  the  Franco-German  war  of  1870-71.     Jealous 

The  Franco-  ^f  ^-j.^^  j^^^^  power  of  Prussia,  and  desirous  of 
German  war.  ^  ' 

covering    many  mistakes    of  policy   by    another 

successful    war.    Napoleon    III.    rushed    unprepared    into    a 


THE   FRANCO  GERMAN   WAR.  167 

Struggle  with  united  Germany.  Bismarck  had  foreseen  the 
attack,  and  did  what  he  could  to  precipitate  it,  for  he  was 
rightly  convinced  that  the  well-organized  Prussian  state  was 
quite  capable  of  crushing  the  P^rench.  His  prescience  was 
rewarded;  Napoleon  III.  with  nearly  100,000  men  were 
surrounded  and  captured  at  Sedan,  and  when  a  republic  re- 
placed the  monarchial  government  in  France,  its  efforts 
proved  as  unavailing  as  those  of  its  predecessor.  Paris 
surrendered  after  a  long  siege  (January  28,  187 1),  and  peace 
was  only  granted  on  the  condition  of  the  cession  of  Alsace- 
Lorraine  and  the  payment  of  a  vast  war-indemnity.  When, 
after  the  treaty  of  Versailles,  a  wicked  and  senseless  civil 
war  broke  out  among  the  vanquished,  and  Paris  was  again 
beleagured  and  taken  by  French  troops  (March-May,  187 1), 
it  seemed  as  if  France  was  likely  to  be  permanently  removed 
from  the  list  of  great  powers. 

England  had  very  properly  kept  out  of  the  Franco-German 
War,  but  some  of  its  consequences  affected  her  very  directly. 
When  Napoleon  III.  fell,  the  Russian  Government  p^ggj^  and 
formally  disavowed  the  Black  Sea  Clauses  of  the  the  Treaty 
treaty  of  1856  which  had  terminated  the  Crimean  **  ^^^^^s. 
War,  and  declared  that  it  would  build  a  warfleet  in  the  Euxine 
when  it  chose.     The  French  emperor,  the  other  guarantor  of 
the  Treaty  of  Paris,  having  disappeared,  England  was   com- 
pelled to  take  the  affront  mildly.     It  would  have   been  mad 
to  make  the  Russian  declaration  a  casus  belli. 

If  the  Gladstone  cabinet  must  be  held  guiltless  in  this 
matter,  the  same  cannot  be  said  with  regard  to  its  action  in. 
the  matter  of  our  dispute  with  the  United  States, 
which  came  to  a  head  in  187 1.  The  subject  in  JrbitfltfoT" 
question  was  the  claim  of  the  Americans  to  be 
compensated  by  England  for  all  the  damage  done  by  the 
Alaba?na  and  her  consorts*  to  Federal  shipping  in  1863-65. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  Palmerston  Government  had 
*  See  p.  150. 


i68        ENGLAND    IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

been  slack  and  slow  in  the  matter  of  detaining  the  Alabama^ 
and  that  the  United  States  had  a  legitimate  grievance  against 
us.  But  there  is  a  long  step  between  conceding  this,  and 
allowing  that  England  should  pay  for  all  the  mischief  done 
by  the  Confederate  cruisers.  We  had  certainly  a  far  greater 
cause  of  com}jlaint  against  the  States  for  allowing  their  territory 
to  be  made  the  base  of  the  two  Fenian  attacks  on  Canada. 
Yet  we  allowed  the  Americans  to  make  demands,  not  only  for 
direct  damages,  but  for  indirect — such  as  the  discouragement 
given  to  American  trade  and  the  prolongation  of  the  War 
of  Secession.  The  Liberal  cabinet  took  this  bullying  very 
meekly,  and  suggested  arbitration,  A  court  of  foreign  arbi- 
trators sitting  at  Geneva  (June,  1872)  gave  the  case  against 
England,  and  bade  her  pay  more  than  ^3,000,000 — a  sum 
so  considerable  that  when  all  the  Alab.ima  claims  had  been 
liquidated,  there  was  still  a  considerable  surplus  left  in  the 
hands  of  the  American  Government.  A  second  arbitration, 
The  San  made  a  little  later,  gave  to  the  Americans  the 
Juan  arbitra-  island  of  St.  Juan,  off  the  coast  of  British 
"°"*  Columbia,    which   had    been    for   some   time   in 

dispute  between  the  two  powers.  Gladstone  was  under  the 
impression  that  in  submitting  both  questions  to  arbitration 
we  had  shown  a  regard  for  abstract  justice  and  a  laudable 
solicitude  for  peace.  But  public  opinion  in  England  generally 
took  the  view  that  we  had  made  an  undignified  submission  to 
threats,  and  had  not  been  treated  fairly  in  the  awards. 

Only  one  satisfactory  result  came  from  the  difficulties  of 
foreign  policy  in  the  years  1871-72.  Convinced  that  if  we 
Cardwell's  ^^^  ^^^^^  unexpectedly  drawn  into  war  our  army 
mihtary  was  not  in  a  condition  to  do  itself  justice,  owing 

reforms.  ^^  ^.j^^  ^:iimQ  defects  that    had    been  seen  in  the 

Crimean  war,  the  Government  took  in  hand  its  reorganization. 
The  arrangements  made  by  Mr.  Cardwell,  the  Secretary  for 
War,  were  for  the  most  part  wise  and  well  considered.  Want 
of  reserves  was  the  greatest  deficiency  in  the  existing  system  ; 


CARDWELL'S    MILITARY    REFORMS.  169 

accordingly  recruits  were  for  the  future  to  be  enlisted,  not  for 
twenty  years,  but  for  short  service — seven  years  with  the  colours 
and  five  in  the  reserve.  Thus,  when  war  broke  out,  some 
60,000  or  80,000  trained  men  could  be  available  to  fill  up  the 
ranks  of  battalions  which  suffered  in  the  field.  Moreover, 
there  was  an  attempt  made  to  localize  the  regiments — battalions 
linked  in  pairs  were  assigned  to  every  region  in  the  United 
Kingdom.  In  theory  each  was  to  draw  its  recruits  entirely 
from  its  own  district,  and  one  battalion  was  always  to  be  at 
home  and  one  abroad.  This  system  has  never  worked  in  a 
quite  satisfactory  manner;  some  corps  have  become  closely 
connected  with  the  counties  to  which  they  were  assigned — 
others  have  not,  and  have  failed  to  elicit  any  local  enthusiasm. 
Moreover,  our  constant  small  wars  have  rendered  it  impossible 
to  keep  precisely  half  the  army  at  home.  It  is  only  by  die 
raising  of  a  considerable  number  of  new  battalions  in  1898 
that  some  approach  has  been  made  to  the  full  carrying  out 
of  Mr.  Card  well's  scheme.  A  more  serious  objection  to  the 
short  service  scheme  has  been  that  the  home-battalion  of  each 
pair  tends  to  become  over-burdened  with  recruits.  The  pro- 
portion of  very  young  soldiers  in  it  is  often  so  large  that  its 
efficiency  for  the  field  has  been  doubted.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  reserve  has  been  a  great  success.  Whenever  called  out, 
it  has  appeared  in  full  numbers  and  admirable  spirit.  By  its 
means  the  young  battalions  could  certainly  be  brought  up  to 
proper  strength  and  efficiency. 

One   of    Mr.    Cardwell's   other    military   reforms   was   the 
abolition  of  an  antique  abuse,  which  nevertheless  caused  some 
murmuring  on  account  of  the  way  in  which  it  was    .,    ,.  . 
conducted.     He  wished  to  get  rid  of  the  " purchase  the  ''pur- 
system,"  by  which  officers  bought  every  step  in  chase" 

,      ,  ....  ,  system, 

rank,   by  compensatmg   their   seniors    who    were 

retiring  or  receiving  promotion.     It  was  an  intolerable  anomaly 

which  often  prevented  poor  and  able  men  from  rising,  while 

rich  but  incapable  officers  bought  promotion  over  their  heads. 


170        ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 

Though  compensation  was  promised  to  all  who  had  obtained 
their  commissions  on  the  old  plan,  yet  so  much  opposition  was 
made  to  the  "  Purchase  Bill,"  especially  in  the  House  of  Lords, 
that  Mr.  Gladstone  finally  dropped  the  measure  and  decreed 
the  abolition  of  purchase  by  a  Royal  Warrant,  on  the  ground 
that  the  armed  forces  of  the  realm  were  subject  in  such  matters 
to  the  direct  authority  of  the  Crown.  This  was  technically 
correct,  but  the  act  was  much  criticized  as  tending  to  take  the 
army  out  of  the  control  of  parliament. 

The  last  complete  year  of  the  Gladstone  ministry,  1873,  was 
much  less  fertile  in  legislation  than  its  predecessors.  It  only 
P  ..    -  produced  a  "Judicature  Act"  for  the  consolida- 

Gladstone's  tion  of  the  courts  of  law,  and  an  abortive  scheme 
ministry.  ^^^  ^^iq  establishment  of  an  "  Undenominational  " 

University  in  Ireland,  which  was  wrecked  by  the  declaration  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  bishops  that  they  would  have  nothing  to 
do  with  it.  Early  in  1874  the  prime  minister  dissolved 
Parliament,  though  it  was  not  yet  six  years  old,  to  the  great 
surprise  of  both  parties.  He  went  to  the  country  with  a 
declaration  that,  if  returned  again  to  power,  he  should  proceed  to 
abolish  the  income  tax.  This  declaration  was  more  fitted  to  affect 
the  middle  classes  than  the  masses ;  and  the  latter,  enfranchised 
in  1867,  had  now  superseded  the  former  as  the  depositaries  of 
political  power.  To  his  own  great  surprise,  Mr.  Gladstone  was 
beaten  at  the  polls ;  he  was  defeated  partly  on  account  of  the 
general  dissatisfaction  with  his  foreign  policy,  but  probably 
still  more  through  the  resentment  of  the  countless  class,  trade, 
and  local  interests  which  he  harassed  by  his  widespreading 
legislation.  The  Conservatives  came  into  office  with  a  majority 
of  more  than  fifty  in  February,  1874. 

Disraeli  had  now  for  the  first  time  a  real  opportunity  of 
showing  what  the  new  Conservatism  was  like.  He  was  com- 
pletely master  of  his  party,  and  had  finished  the  process  of 
"  educating  "  it  which  he  had  begun  twenty  years  before.  In 
his    six    years'   administration,    187 4-1 880,    he   was    able    to 


THE   SUEZ   CANAL   SHARES.  171 

develop  his  policy  in  every  direction  that  he  chose.     The  two 

elements  that  went  to  make  it,  Imperialism  abroad 

and  cautious  social  reform  at  home,  emerge  very  position  of 

clearly  in  the  annals  of  his  tenure  of  power.     If  Disraeli  as 

the  former  tendency  seems  to  engross  our  attention 

more    than    the   latter,    it  is  largely  because  the  lines  of  his 

ministry   were  cast   in    troublous    days,    when   foreign    policy 

became  all-important. 

The    first   two    years    of  the    Disraeli    ministry    (1874-75) 

were  a  time  of  peace  and  quiet,  notable  mainly  for  the  number 

of  moderate  and  unostentatious  measures  of  social 

and    economic    reform    w^hich    the    Government  Conservative 

legislation, 
succeeded  in  passing.     Such  were  the  Agricultural 

Holdings  Bill,  by  which  farmers  obtained  compensation  for 
unexhausted  improvements  when  giving  up  their  land;  the 
Artisans'  Dwellings  Bill,  which  secured  better  housing  for  the 
workmen  in  great  towns ;  and  the  Friendly  Societies  Act,  which 
did  much  towards  securing  the  better  management  of  the 
savings  of  the  poor. 

The  only  striking  event  of  this  time  was  the  interference  of 
Disraeli  in  Egypt,  in  the  matter  of  the  Suez  Canal  shares,  the 
first  attempt  of  England  to  obtain  a  footing  in  ^ng-land  d 
that  country,  where  French  influence  had  hitherto  Egypt— The 
been  predominant.  The  whole  conditions  of  ^"^^  Canal. 
Eastern  trade  had  been  changed  in  1869-70  by  the  con- 
struction of  a  ship-canal  through  the  Isthmus  of  Suez  by  the 
French  engineer  Lesseps.  Its  convenience  attracted  to  the  Red 
Sea  route  a  growing  proportion  of  the  commerce  which  had 
hitherto  gone  to  India,  China,  and  Australia  by  the  circuitous 
voyage  round  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  It  also  put  an  end  to 
the  tiresome  transhipment  of  goods  and  passengers  landed  at 
Alexandria,  which  had  been  necessary  since  the  Overland 
Route  *  was  adopted.  Some  three-fourths  of  the  tonnage 
which  passed  through  the  canal  was  English,  and  yet  the 
♦  See  p.  113. 


172        ENGLAND   IN   THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 

control  of  the  traffic  was  entirely  in  the  hands  of  a  grasping 
French  company  and  a  thriftless  and  oppressive  Oriental 
despot.  Luckily,  the  reckless  extravagance  of  the  Khedive 
Ismail  landed  him  in  financial  difficulties,  and  while  he  was 
looking  around  for  a  purchaser  for  the  177,000  shares  in  the 
canal  which  he  owned,  the  English  Government  stepped  in 
with  a  prompt  offer  of  ^4,000,000  in  ready  cash.  The  offer, 
made  by  telegram,  was  accepted,  and  Disraeli  was  able  to 
announce  that  England  had  become  the  owner  of  an  interest 
in  the  canal  amounting  to  almost  half  its  value.  This 
acquisition  put  our  position  in  Egypt  on  an  entirely  new  footing. 
But  it  was  not  only  a  political  advantage,  but  a  splendid 
financial  stroke.  The  shares  are  now  worth  six  times  what 
was  given  for  them,  and  the  interest  on  them  is  an  appreciable 
item  in  the  national  revenue. 

In  the  following  year,  1876,  the  political  horizon  of  Europe, 
which  had  been  fairly  clear  since  the  Franco-German  war  of 
Insurrections  ^^70-71,  began  to  grow  overcast.  An  insur- 
in  the  Balkan  rection  in  Bosnia,  which  had  been  troubling  the 
Peninsula.  Turkish  Government  for  some  time,  began  to  grow 
serious  and  to  draw  the  attention  of  the  powers  to  the  inter- 
minable Eastern  Question.  The  Sultan  Abdul- Aziz  had  taken 
no  advantage  of  the  long  respite  given  to  his  realm  by  the 
Crimean  war.  In  spite  of  many  promises  made  by  his  brother 
and  himself  since  1854,  the  administration  of  the  Ottoman 
empire  remained  as  scandalous  and  oppressive  as  ever.  The 
Porte  had  borrowed  huge  sums  of  money  from  Europe,  but 
they  had  been  employed,  not  to  develop  the  empire,  but  to 
gratify  the  Sultan's  caprices,  or  at  the  best  to  furnish  his  army 
with  modern  rifles  and  artillery.  The  Bosnian  insurrection 
spread,  and  it  was  soon  discovered  that  Russian  emissaries, 
sent  by  patriotic  Slavonic  societies,  were  sustaining  it,  with  or 
without  the  full  consent  of  their  Government.  In  the  summer  of 
1876  the  princes  of  Servia  and  Montenegro  took  arms  to  aid 
the  insurgents,  and  when  the  Servian  troops  were  reinforced  by 


THE   BULGARIAN   ATROCITIES.  173 

many  thousands  of  Russian  volunteers  and  placed  under  the 

command  of  a  Russian  general,  it  became  evident  that  the 

Czar's  ministers  were  at  the  bottom  of  the  trouble. 

The  first  impulse  of  the  English  Government  and  people  was 

to  lend  support  to  the  Sultan,  despite  of  his  notorious  misrule, 

in  order  to  keep  Russia  out  of  the  Balkan  Penin- 

T.  ,     .  .  1  •  1      1       r-         Gladstone 

sula.     But    any  such    mtentions  which   the   Con-  denounces 

servative  cabinet  may  have  cherished  were  foiled  *'  Bulgarian 
by  the  barbarities  of  the  Turks  themselves. 
While  the  Ottoman  army  was  concentrated  on  the  Servian 
frontier,  a  rising  broke  out  among  the  Bulgarians.  In  the 
absence  of  regular  troops,  the  Sultan  put  it  down  by  employing 
hordes  of  Circassians  and  armed  Mohammedan  villagers,  who 
displayed  the  same  horrible  cruelty  which  had  been  seen  in  the 
Greek  insurrection  of  182 1,  and  was  to  be  exhibited  again  in 
the  Armenian  massacres  of  1897.  When  the  news  of  the 
"  Bulgarian  Atrocities  "  reached  England,  Gladstone,  who  had 
nominally  retired  from  politics  in  1875,  took  the  field  again  to 
denounce  the  Turks,  and  to  protest  against  any  action  on  the 
part  of  the  English  Government  which  might  be  held  to 
encourage  them.  His  crusade  was  completely  successful; 
public  opinion  was  so  deeply  stirred,  that  the  premier  had  to 
appease  it  by  declaring  that  Great  Britain  had  no  intention  of 
bolstering  up  the  effete  and  corrupt  Ottoman  power,  but  must 
confine  herself  to  defending  her  own  interests  in  the  East. 

It  was  in  no  small  degree  owing  to  this  turn  of  national  feel- 
ing in  England,  that  the  Czar  was  encouraged  in  the  next  year 
to  declare  war  on  Turkey  (April,  1877),  and  sent  -^j^^  Russo- 
his  armies  across  the  Danube  to  "  deliver  their  Turkish 
Christian  brethren  from  the  infidel."     The  Otto-  ^^'^• 
mans  made  a  much  better  fight  than  had  been  expected  :  the 
central  government  was  weak — the  reckless   Abdul-Aziz  had 
just  been  murdered,  and  his  successor,  Murad  V.,  was  almost 
an  imbecile — but  the  army  was  courageous  and  well  equipped. 
The  obstinate  defence  of  Plevna  kept  the  Russian  troops  in 


174        ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 

Europe  at  bay  for  the  whole  autumn,  and  it  was  only  when 
Plevna  was  starved  out  that  the  Russians  burst  over  the 
Balkans  at  midwinter.  Driving  the  remnants  of  the  Turkish 
armies  before  them,  they  drew  near  Constantinople.  At  St. 
Stephano,  not  far  from  the  gates  of  the  city,  they  imposed  on 
the  Sultan  a  treaty  by  which  he  surrendered  a  large  territory  in 
Asia,  and  gave  back  the  small  slip  at  the  Danube  mouth  which 
had  been  ceded  by  Russia  after  the  Crimean  war.  The 
greater  part  of  European  Turkey  was  to  be  divided  among 
Christian  states,  of  which  a  new  Bulgarian  principality  was  to  be 
the  largest  (March  3,  1878). 

Disraeli — or  rather  Lord  Beaconsfield,  as  he  must  be  called 
since  his  migration  to  the  Upper  House  in  1877 — was  de- 
termined not  to  let  Russia  settle  the  Eastern 
Lord^Bea-  question  by  herself.  He  informed  the  Czar's 
consfield—  Government  that  the  terms  imposed  on  Turkey 
of  Berlin^  ^  ^^^^^  ^^  approved  by  a  conference  of  all  the 
powers.  When  no  attention  was  paid  to  this 
demand,  he  sent  a  fleet  up  the  Dardanelles,  to  the  immediate 
vicinity  of  Constantinople ;  called  out  the  reserves ;  obtained  a 
grant  of  ^6,000,000  for  war  preparations  from  parliament;  and 
began  to  move  Indian  troops  into  the  Mediterranean.  These 
menaces  brought  the  Czar's  advisers  to  terms,  and,  rather  than 
face  a  new  war,  they  consented  that  the  St.  Stephano  treaty 
should  be  revised.  The  process  was  carried  out  by  delegates 
of  the  seven  great  powers,  meeting  at  Berlin  under  the  presi- 
dency of  Prince  Bismarck  (June,  1878).  By  the  treaty  of 
Berlin  Russia  kept  her  own  conquests,  but  the  proposed 
Bulgarian  state  was  to  be  split  in  two,  and  other  powers  were 
to  take  slices  of  Turkey  for  themselves.  Austria  was  to  occupy 
Bosnia,  Greece  was  promised  Thessaly,  and  England  received 
the  Isle  of  Cyprus.  In  return  for  this  grant,  she  undertook  to 
guarantee  the  integrity  of  the  Sultan's  remaining  dominions  in 
Asia,  and  also  to  see  that  the  long-promised  reforms  were 
carried  out  therein. 


"PEACE   WITH    HONOUR."  175 

Lord  Beaconsfield  and  his  colleague,  Lord  Salisbury,  came 

back  from  Berlin  claiming  that  they  had  obtained  "  Peace  with 

honour,"  and  in  the  main  this  was  true.     But  the  _  .  .  . 

,.  ^    ,  ,.  ....  Criticism  of 

policy  of  the  treaty  kes  open  to  much  criticism.  Lord  Bea- 

We  were  never  able  to  get  the  Turks  to  carry  out  cc-sfield's 
the  projected  reforms,  which  are  much  further 
from  fulfilment  in  1899  than  they  were  in  1878.  Our 
guarantee  of  the  Turkish  empire  was  never  more  than  a 
farce.  The  island  of  Cyprus,  held  on  a  rather  undignified 
tenure,  proved  barren  and  harbourless,  and  has  never  been  of 
any  use  to  us  as  a  naval  or  military  base.  Crete  would  have 
been  a  far  better  choice.  Bulgaria,  so  elaborately  divided  by 
the  treaty,  united  itself  by  a  revolution  a  few  years  later  without 
any  objection  from  any  power.  On  the  other  hand,  Russia 
had  been  humiliated  by  the  revision  of  the  St.  Stephano  terms, 
and  owed  England  a  grudge  which  could  not  easily  be  for- 
gotten. These,  however,  were  not  the  criticisms  made  on  the 
BerUn  Conference  by  the  British  opposition  in  1878:  the 
points  then  raised  by  Mr.  Gladstone  and  his  friends  were  that 
we  might  have  joined  Russia  in  bringing  pressure  on  Turkey 
in  1877,  after  the  Bulgarian  atrocities,  and  so  have  prevented 
any  war,  and  that  it  was  unrighteous  to  offer  any  guarantee  for 
the  further  maintenance  of  the  barbarous  and  blood-stained 
Ottoman  power.  With  the  massacres  of  1897  before  us,  it  is 
difficult  not  to  sympathize  with  this  last  view.  Fortunately  our 
guarantee  lapsed  long  ago. 

The  Conservatives  had  yet  two  years  of  power  after  the 
Berlin  Treaty  was  signed;  they  were  full  of  unfortunate  incidents, 
for  some  of  which  the  cabinet  was  responsible,  while  others 
were  the  results  of  mere  ill  luck.  In  our  chapter  on  India 
and  the  colonies  we  shall  have  to  deal  with  the  Afghan  war 
of  1878-80,  with  its  record  of  fighting  that  was  not  always 
fortunate.  It  was  a  direct  result  of  our  quarrel  with  Russia, 
for  fear  lest  the  Ameer  should  fall  under  Russian  influence  was 
the  originating  cause  of  our  invasion  of  his  realm.     The  Zulu 


176         ENGLAND    IN    THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

war  of  1878-79  had  no  such  direct  connection  with  European 

poHtics ;  but  when  the  disaster  of  Isandula  made  it  unpopular, 

Liberal  orators  did  not  fail  to  point  out  that  such  misfortunes 

were  the  result  of  Imperialistic  greed  and  the  maintenance  of  a 

"  forward  policy  "  in  the  colonies. 

But   in   all    probability  the    Government   suffered  more  in 

public  estimation  from  its  Irish  difficulties  than  from  its  foreign 

_,     ,^  policy.     The  parliament  of  1874-80  was  the  first 

The  Home       .         ,  •  i      1       ,r  t^    1  1    ■  ^^ 

Rule  party—  ^^  which  the   Home   Rule   party  and    its    policy 

Rise  of  of    systematic    obstruction    came    to    the    front. 

Parnell.  ^^  ^    .  .     ,, 

Home     Rule     was     practically    a    reversion    to 

O'Connell's  old  demand  for  the  repeal  of  the  Union,  the 
Fenian  programme  of  complete  separation  and  the  establish- 
ment of  an  Irish  republic  being  tacitly  dropped.  As  long 
as  the  Home  Rulers  were  led  by  the  quiet  and  respectable 
Isaac  Butt,  they  made  no  great  stir.  But  with  the  appearance 
of  the  cynical  and  saturnine  Charles  Stuart  Parnell  as  a  party 
chief,  things  changed.  The  more  violent  members  of  the  Home 
Rule  faction  tried  the  policy  of  obstructing  in  Parliament  all 
public  business,  foreign  and  domestic,  by  interminable  speeches, 
irrelevant  amendments,  got-up  altercations,  and  vexatious  counts 
out.  Their  object  w^as  that  of  the  importunate  widow  in  the 
parable — -to  make  themselves  such  a  nuisance  that  their  de- 
mands might  be  conceded  out  of  mere  weariness  and  disgust. 
Throughout  the  years  1877-80  they  were  incessantly  wasting 
time  and  driving  to  despair  the  mild  and  kindly  Sir  Stafford 
Northcote,  who  had  succeeded  Lord  Beaconsfield  as  leader  of 
the  House  of  Commons.  At  the  same  time  they  kept  up  a 
vigorous  agitation  against  "  landlordism  "  in  the  Irish  country- 
side, which  was  accompanied  with  a  running  commentary  of 
agrarian  outrages,  of  which  they  disclaimed  the  responsibility. 
It  cannot  be  denied  that  one  result  of  their  activity  was  to 
produce  a  general  feeling  in  England  that  the  Conservatives 
had  proved  themselves  incaj^able  of  dealing  with  the  Irish 
question. 


GLADSTONE   RETURNS   TO    POWER.  177 

In  March,  1880,  Lord  Beaconsfield  dissolved  his  parliament, 
which  was  now  nearing  its  legal  term  of  seven  years.     The 

general  election  was  fought  with  more  than  usual 

•  f      .u     T-i        1  .■      A   .  f   Fall  of  Lord 

acrimony,  for  the  Liberals  were  stirred  to  great  Beacons- 
energy    by    Gladstone's   "  Midlothian    speeches,"  field's 
in  which  he   taunted   the    Conservatives   as   the 
advocates  of  unjust  aggression  all    over   the   world,  and  the 
special  friends  of  the  Turk.     His    eloquence    had    no    mean 
effect  on  the   contest,    and   the    Liberals    came    to    the    new 
Parliament  with  a  splendid  majority  of  one  hundred.    It  boded 
ill  for  them,  however,  that  the  Home  Rulers  had  swept  all 
Ireland  save  Ulster,  and  appeared  with  nearly  eighty  members 
when  the  House  met  in  the  summer  of  1880. 

The   second  Gladstone   ministry  was  destined  to   last  just 
five  years  (June,  1880,  to  June,  1885).     It  was  inaugurated  with 
promises  of  the  old  Liberal  panaceas,  "  Peace,  Re- 
trenchment, and  Reform,"  but  it  turned  out  to  be  ^^^o^^d^"^'^ 
a  period  of  wars  and  rumours  of  wars,  of  disaster  ministry— 
abroad  and  venomous   civil  strife  at  home.     Its  ^^^     °^^ 
opening  incident  showed  that  Gladstone's  external 
policy  might  perhaps  be  righteous,  but  was  certainly  neither 
dignified   nor    successful.      The    Government   was    hardly    in 
office  before  it  was  confronted  with  the  revolt  of  the  Boers 
of  the  Transvaal,  a  Dutch  state  which  Lord  Beaconsfield  had 
annexed  in  1877,  to  save  its  population  from  being  overwhelmed 
by  its  Zulu  neighbours.     In  1880,  the  Zulus  having  been  long 
crushed,  the  Boers  rose  in  rebellion,  destroyed  several  small 
detachments,  and  finally  inflicted  a  disgraceful  defeat  on  the 
British  forces  at  Majuba  Hill.     The  Government  had  at  first 
refused  to  treat  with  the  insurgents,  but  after  the  first  checks 
Mr.  Gladstone  came  to  the  conclusion  that  they  were  patriots 
rightly  struggling  for   independence,  and,   though  large  rein- 
forcements were  just  reaching  Natal,  granted  the  Boers  inde- 
pendence under  the  vaguest  terms  of  suzerainty  (March,  1881). 
Since  then  South  Africa  has  never  ceased  to  give  trouble. 

N 


178        ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

Even  before  the  Transvaal  disturbances  were  settled,  Ireland 
was  in  a  state  of  uproar  which  had  not  been  paralleled  since 

1867.  If  the  Home  Rule  members  had  been 
Irish  discon-  troublesome  to  the  late  Conservative  Govern- 
"Compensa-  i^^-"t,  they  continued  to  make  themselves  doubly 
lion  for  Dis-  objectionable  to  the  Liberals.  Mr.  Gladstone 
gjjj^  was    still    under    the    impression,  which   he   had 

imbibed  in  1868,  that  Irish  discontent  could  be 
healed  by  remedial  measures.  With  this  object  he  brought 
forward  in  1880  a  bill  prohibiting  landlords  from  evicting  any 
tenants,  however  bad,  without  paying  them  "  compensation  for 
disturbance."     This  measure  failed  to  pass  the  House  of  Lords, 

but  in  1 88 1  another  "  Land  Bill "  was  successfully 

The  Land        carried  througjh,    creating  a   Land  Court,  whose 
Actofi88i—  .    .         ""  '  ""  ^    .      ^        11         . 

The  Land        commissioners  were  empowered   to   fix  all  rents 

League  and     against  which  protest  was  made.     It  acted  in  the 

cnme.  most  stringent  way,  reducing  rents  from  thirty  to 

fifty   per  cent.,  but   Ireland  showed   no  signs  of 

settling  down.     The    peasantry  had  been    persuaded  by  the 

Home   Rulers  that  if  they  held  together  and  kept  up  a  lively 

agitation,  the   Liberal  Government  might    be   frightened   into 

abolishing  landlords  altogether,  compensating  them  from  the 

public  funds,  and  making  over  their   estates  to  the  tenantry. 

For  this  end  the  celebrated  "  Land  League  "  was  started,  and 

soon   spread    over   the   whole    country.     Its    leaders    did   not 

oi)enly  advocate  outra  ;es,  but  they  were  always  full  of  excuse 

and  pity  for  those  who  were  detected  in  committing  them.     It 

was  small  wonder  if  agrarian  crime  suddenly  developed  to  an 

extent  which  might  have  seemed  incredible.     Many  districts  of 

the  south  and  west  of  Ireland  were  under  a  veritable  reign  of 

terror. 

At   last   Mr.    Forster,    the    courageous    and    well-meaning 

statesman  to  whom  the  secretaryship  for  Ireland  was  entrusted, 

got  leave  to  seize  and  imprison  on  suspicion  Parncll  and  some 

forty  other  chiefs  of  the  Land  League.     Outrages  redoubled, 


THE   PHCENIX   PARK   MURDERS.  179 

and  from   his  confinement  in  Kilmainham  jail   Parnell    sanc- 
tioned the   "  No  Rent  Manifesto,"  an  appeal  to 
the  whole  tenantry  of  Ireland  to  refuse  to  pay  a       P[^^?"7 
farthing  to   their    landlords    till    the  Government  Land  League 
should  be  brought  to  its  knees.     It  was  largely  !f?f ^o~T^^ 
acted  upon  in  the  southern  and  western  parts  of  Manifesto." 
the  island.     Thereupon  the  cabinet  declared  the 
Land    League    "an    illegal    association,"    and    suppressed    it 
throughout  the  country.     But  the  outrages  only  continued  to 
grow  worse:   in  the  fourth  quarter  of  1881  they  rose  to  the 
appalling  figure  of  732,  of  which  eight  were  murders  and  thirty- 
four  attempts  at  murder. 

Broken  down  by  the  stress  of  the  struggle,  Gladstone  resolved 
to  take  the  astonishing  step  of  releasing  Parnell  and  the  other 
suspects,   if   they  would   promise   to  aid  him   in 
quieting  the  country.     This  surrender  took  shape  ♦' Treaty"  of 
in  the  "Kilmainham  treaty"  of  April,  1882,  the  Kilmainham 
prisoners  covenanting  that  the  No-Rent  Manifesto  phoenix 

should   be   withdrawn,    and    they    would    "  make  Park 

,  .  ,  ,  ,    ,  „      .        .  murders, 

exertions   which   would   be   eiiective  in   stopping 

outrages  and   intimidation  of  all  kinds,"     Forster,  the    Irish 

secretary,  and   Lord   Cowper,   the  viceroy,   at  once   resigned, 

refusing  to  make  bargains  with  sedition.     To  fill  the  former's 

place  Lord  Frederick  Cavendish  took  office,  but  only  six  days 

afterwards  he  was  assassinated  in  broad  daylight  in  the  Phoenix 

Park,    along    with   his    under- secretary   Mr.    Burke,    by    some 

Dublin  ruffians  belonging  to  a  society  which  called  itself  "  the 

Invincibles"  (May  6,  1882), 

Public  opinion  in  England  was  deeply  stirred  by  this  dreadful 

crime,  which  so  entirely  justified  Forster's  refusal  to  sanction  a 

policy  of  weakness.     The  Gladstone  Government  had  to  take 

up  once  more  a  policy  of  coercion,  and  to  acknowledge  that 

"  the  late  arrangements  must  be  reconsidered  and  recast."     So 

great  was  the  feeling  stirred  up  against  the  Home  Rulers  in 

general,  that  Parnell  himself  thought  it  necessary  to  characterize 


i8o        ENGLAND   IN   THE    NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

the   murders  "  as  cowardly    and    unprovoked   assassinations." 

But  he  none  the  less  opposed  by  all  the  weapons 
The  Crimes  of  obstruction  the  new  Coercion  Bills  brought 
Continuance  ^"  ^^  ^^^  William  Harcourt,  predicting  that  they 
of  the  would  lead  to  even  worse  troubles  than  those  of 

s£?Se.  1 88 1.     In  this  he  was  wrong;  the  "  Crimes  Act," 

vigorously  administered  by  the  new  viceroy  Lord 
Spencer,  had  a  considerable  effect  in  keeping  down  out- 
rages. The  Dublin  murderers  were  detected  and  hung,  to  the 
great  content  of  the  nation,  and  several  dastardly  attempts  to 
use  dynamite  for  explosions  in  England  and  Scotland  failed 
to  frighten  the  Government,  or  to  produce  anythmg  more 
than  a  redoubled  determination  that  sedition  and  crime 
must  be  put  down.  Rampant  obstruction  was  still  kept 
up  by  the  Home  Rulers  in  parliament,  and  outrages  con- 
tinued to  occur  in  Ireland;  but  by  1884  other  questions 
had  arisen  to  distract  the  attention  of  Great  Britain  from  the 
sister  island. 

The  main  question  of  foreign  policy  in  the  years  of  the  war 
with  the   Land    League  was   connected   with    Egypt.      Since 

Disraeli's  purchase  of  the  Suez  Canal  shares  we 
b  11'^  had  kept   our   hand    upon    that  country,  sharing 

with  France  a  sort  of  unauthorized  control,  which 
in  1879  was  made  more  formal.  In  that  year  the  extrava- 
gant and  reckless  Khedive  Ismail  was  compelled  to  abdicate, 
and  his  son  Tewfik  was  placed  in  power,  but  compelled  to 
accept  an  English  and  a  French  minister,  who  were  to  be 
irremovable,  and  to  take  charge  of  the  whole  financial 
arrangements  of  the  country.  The  young  Khedive  did  not 
struggle  against  the  "  Dual  Control,"  but  it  roused  deep  dis- 
content among  the  native  officials  and  ministers,  who  had 
previously  fleeced  the  country  at  their  own  sweet  will.  An 
ambitious  colonel  named  Arabi  Pasha  put  himself  at  the  head 
of  a  movement  whose  watchword  was  "  Egypt  for  the 
Egyptians."       Finding   that  the   troops  would  follow  him,  he 


CONQUEST   OF   EGYPT.  i8i 

executed  a  coup  d'etat^  seized  the  person  of  the   Khedive,  and 
drove  away  the  foreign  ministers  (April,  1882). 

It  would  have  been  natural  for  England  and  France  to  com- 
bine, in  order  to  restore  the  Dual  Control  and  put  down  the 
dictator.       But  the    French    Government  refused 
to  lend  any  help  for  such  a  purpose,  not  dream-  jr'^^"^^  ^^" 
ing  apparently  that   England  would  go  in  single Bombard- 
handed.      Mr.  Gladstone  seems  at  first  to  have  Ti^"^  °^  . 
been  in  some  doubt  as  to  the  policy  to   pursue, 
but  the  Mediterranean  squadron  was  ordered  to  Alexandria. 
While  it  lay  there  a  great  riot  broke  out  in  the  city,  directed 
against  all  Europeans,  and  many  hundreds  of  Greeks,  Italians, 
and  Levantines,  with  a   few   British  subjects,  were  massacred 
(June  II,  1882).      This  occurrence  naturally  led  to  hostilities  : 
when  Arabi  refused  to  obey  Admiral  Seymour's  demand  that  he 
should  stop  fortifying  Alexandria,  and  dismantle  its  batteries, 
the  fleet  was  directed  to  bombard  the  place  (July  11).       The 
forts  were  wTecked,  the  garrison  driven  out,  and  the   English 
landed  and  took  possession  of  the  ruins  of  the  place. 

Thus  began  the  Egyptian  campaign,  which  Gladstone 
persistently  refused  to  call  a  war,  maintaining  that  it  was 
only   "  a  series   of  military   operations,"   because 

T^Vt       "D     4-4-1  C 

we  were  attacking,  not  the  Khedive,  the  rightful  Xel-el-licebir 
ruler,  but  only  his  rebellious  subjects.  The 
struggle  was  short,  for  Sir  Garnet  Wolseley,  to  whom  it  was 
entrusted,  managed  the  business  with  the  most  admirable 
decision  and  promptitude.  The  Egyptians  were  expecting 
him  to  debouch  from  Alexandria,  but  when  his  troops  began  to 
arrive  in  force  from  England  and  India,  he  turned  aside  and 
seized  the  Suez  Canal,  which  he  made  his  base  for  a  march 
across  the  desert  on  Cairo.  Arabi  hurriedly  raised  the  lines  of 
Tel-el-Kebir  to  protect  the  capital;  but  Wolseley  came  upon 
them  by  a  rapid  night  march,  stormed  them  at  dawn,  and  com- 
pletely scattered  the  Egyptian  host  (September  13).  A  day 
later  his  cavalry  seized    Cairo  before  the  enemy  could  rally, 


i82        ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

and  the  rebellion  collapsed.  Arabi  and  his  chief  supporters 
were  captured  and  exiled  to  Ceylon,  and  the  Khedive  wks 
replaced  on  his  throne.  But  an  English  army  of  occupation 
remained  in  Egypt,  though  Gladstone  promised  the  French  and 
the  Sultan  that  they  should  be  removed  when  order  and  good 
government  were  restored — a  most  unwise  pledge. 

Circumstances,    however,  were  too  strong  for   the    Liberal 
cabinet,   or  the  promise  would  probably  have  been   fulfilled. 

But  even  before  Arabi's  rise,  a  rebellion  had 
Mahdi—  ^  broken  out  in  the  Egyptian  provinces  in  the 
Abandon-  Soudan.  A  fanatic  from  Dongola,  named 
Soudal^^^      Mohammed    Ahmed,    had    put    himself    at    the 

head  of  the  Arab  tribes  of  the  south,  who  were 
groaning  under  the  bitter  oppression  of  their  Egyptian  task- 
masters. He  proclaimed  himself  to  be  the  MaJidi^  the  prophet 
whom  all  Mussulmans  expect  to  appear  just  before  the  Last 
Judgment,  and  announced  that  he  was  the  destined  conqueror 
of  the  world.  His  first  successes  caused  the  whole  Soudan  to 
rally  round  him,  and  his  "  dervishes "  drove  the  Egyptian 
troops  into  their  fortresses.  To  stay  his  progress.  General 
Hicks  was  sent  to  Khartoum  with  a  raw  native  force,  hastily 
raised  from  the  wreck  of  Arabi's  army.  But  as  he  marched 
towards  Kordofan  Hicks  was  surrounded  and  cut  to  pieces 
with  the  whole  of  his  host  (October  3,  1883).  Gladstone  then 
determined  to  abandon  the  Soudan,  believing  that  the  dervishes 
were  an  oppressed  population  struggling  for  a  not-undeserved 
freedom,  and  not  seeing  that  they  were  desperate  fanatics  bent 
on  the  conquest  of  the  whole  world,  and  set  on  slaying  every 
one  who  refused  to  acknowledge  their  Mahdi. 

To  withdraw  the  Egyptian  troops  from  the  Soudan,  Charles 
Gordon,  a  brave  and  pious   engineer  officer,  who  had    once 

governed  the  country  in  the  days  of  the  Khedive 
Khartoum        Ismail,  was  sent  to   Khartoum.       On    his  arrival 

there  he  found  that  the  rebellion  had  gone  much 
further  than  he  had  expected,  and  that  it  was  impossible  to 


DEATH  OF  GENERAL  GORDON.         183 

carry  out  the  Government's  plan  without  further  miHtary  aid. 
He  was  driven  into  Khartoum  and  there  besieged  by  the 
Mahdists  in  February,  1884.  At  the  head  of  his  dispirited  and 
ill-discipHned  Egyptian  troops  he  made  a  gallant  defence,  but  his 
repeated  demands  for  British  bayonets  were  regularly  refused 
till  it  was  too  late.  In  the  autumn  Gladstone  at  last  deter- 
mined to  send  an  expedition  to  the  Soudan ;  but  by  this  time 
Khartoum  was  at  its  last  gasp.  Wolseley,  the  victor  of  Tel-el- 
Kebir,  forced  his  way  up  the  Nile  and  despatched  a  column 
across  the  desert  to  relieve  the  city.  After  a  most  perilous 
march  the  troops  beat  the  dervishes  at  the  desperate  battle  of 
Abu-Klea  (January  22,  1885),  and  forced  their  way  to  within  a 
hundred  miles  of  Gordon's  stronghold.  But  the  time  was  past 
for  succour.  On  January  26  the  Mahdi  stormed  Khartoum, 
and  massacred  Gordon  and  the  11,000  men  of  his  garrison. 
On  receiving  this  disastrous  news  the  expeditionary  force 
retired  on  Egypt,  abandoning  the  whole  Soudan  to  the  rebels, 
who  slew  off  the  greater  part  of  the  people,  and  turned  the 
whole  region  into  a  desert. 

Two  half-hearted  attempts  were  made,  one  before  and  one 
after  the  fall  of  Khartoum,  to  attack  the  insurgents  from  the 
side  of  the  Red  Sea.  But  the  expeditionary  forces  which 
landed  at  Suakim,  though  they  beat  the  dervishes  at  El-Teb  and 
Tamai  (1884),  and  Tofrek  (1885),  recoiled  before  the  difficulties 
of  the  waterless  desert  which  separates  the  coast  plain  from  the 
Nile,  and  accomplished  absolutely  nothing. 

The  betrayal    of  Gordon — for  so  the  tardy  action    of  the 
Government   was    generally    and    not    unnaturally    styled— 
alienated  from  Gladstone  many  supporters  whose  -,,     „  r 
faith  had  survived  Majuba  Hill  and  the  Kilmain-  gill  and  Re- 
ham  Treaty.     For  the  last  year  of  its  tenure  of  distribution 
office   the   Liberal    cabinet  was   profoundly   un- 
popular.     It   had  profited   little   from    the    one   constructive 
measure  of  its  later  years,  the  Reform  Bill  of  1884.      This  was 
designed  to  level  up  the  electoral  body,  by  giving  the  franchise 


i84        ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

to  the  last  considerable  class  who  were  still  destitute  of  the 
vote — the  agricultural  labourers  of  the  counties.  The  Conser- 
vatives refused  to  allow  the  bill  to  pass,  stopping  it  in  the 
House  of  Lords,  till  Gladstone  consented  to  let  redistribution 
accompany  reform ;  i.e.  to  rearrange  all  the  constituencies  so 
as  to  make  them  fairly  equal  in  size.  This  idea  was  very 
imperfectly  carried  out.  The  democratic  ideal  of  "  one  man 
one  vote  "  was  now  practically  attained,  but  not  that  of  "  one 
vote  one  value,"  for  a  few  hundred  inhabitants  of  a  decaying 
Irish  town,  or  a  depopulated  Irish  county,  still  return  the  same 
number  of  members  as  enormous  London  constituencies,  such 
as  Chelsea  or  East  Ham.  Gladstone  justified  the  anomaly  by 
the  theory  that  the  further  a  district  was  from  the  capital  the 
more  did  it  require  representation — a  doctrine  not  likely  to  be 
popular  with  Londoners.  The  main  result  of  the  bill  was  that 
the  smaller  boroughs  which  had  escaped  disfranchisement  in 
1832,  now  became  absorbed  in  the  surrounding  country 
districts.  The  seats  gained  from  them  mostly  went  to  new 
constituencies  in  the  north  of  England. 

In  June,  1885,  the  Government  was  defeated,  by  a  chance 
combination  of  Conservatives  and  Home  Rulers,  on  an  unim- 
portant detail  of  the  budget.  Gladstone  there- 
oarties'in  upon  resigned,  and  Lord  Salisbury,  head  of  the 
1885— Glad-  Conservative  party  since  Lord  Beaconsfield's 
stone's  third  ^^^^j^  -^^  ^gg  ^^^^  ^^^^^  ^^  ^^^  Liberals  were 
premiersnip.  ' 

still  in  a  considerable  majority,  this  arrangement 

was  evidently  a  mere  stop-gap.  At  the  end  of  the  session, 
Lord  Salisbury  dissolved  Parliament,  and  the  first  general 
election  after  the  Reform  Bill  of  1884  occurred.  What  attitude 
the  new  constituencies  would  adopt  was  quite  uncertain. 
Gladstone,  in  a  series  of  long  and  vigorous  speeches  in  his 
constituency  of  Midlothian,  asked  for  a  majority  large  enough 
to  enable  him  to  keep  down  both  Tories  and  Home  Rulers  in 
case  they  should  combine.  But  this  was  denied  him  :  though 
the  Liberals  swept  away  nearly  all  the  county  seats  in  the  east 


GENERAL   ELECTION   OF    1885.  1S5 

and  centre  of  England,  where  the  newly  enfranchised  labourers 
all  voted  for  their  benefactor,  yet  they  suffered  a  number  of 
disastrous  defeats  in  the  towns,  where  public  opinion  was 
greatly  excited  against  their  weak  and  unlucky  foreign  policy. 
When  the  House  met,  the  Liberals  had  just  such  a  majority 
over  the  Conservatives  (330  to  251)  as  allowed  the  eighty-six 
Home  Rulers  under  Parnell  to  keep  the  balance  of  power  in 
their  hands.  The  Irish  chief  had  been  sounding  the  heads  of 
both  parties  for  some  time,  and  thought  that  Gladstone  was 
likely  to  prove  more  squeezable  than  Lord  Salisbury,  though 
several  Conservative  leaders — especially  Lord  Carnarvon — 
seem  to  have  given  more  attention  to  his  overtures  in  1885 
than  was  consistent  with  the  true  poHcy  of  their  party.  In 
January,  1886,  Parnell  assisted  the  Liberals  to  evict  Lord 
Salisbury  from  office,  and  Gladstone  for  the  third  time  became 
prime  minister.  Even  before  he  took  office  it  began  to  be 
noised  abroad  that  he  was  in  secret  negotiation  with  the  Irish, 
and  ready  to  buy  their  allegiance  by  the  grant  of  a  measure  of 
Home  Rule.  Here  begins  a  new  chapter  of  our  domestic 
history  ;  that  one  of  the  two  great  parties  should  make  a  per- 
manent alliance  with  the  Obstructionists  had  never  been  deemed 
possible  before  1885, 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE    HOME    RULE    QUESTION    AND    IMPERIALISM. 
1886-1899. 

Since  the  days  immediately  preceding  the  Reform  Bill  of  1832, 
the  United  Kingdom  had  never  been  in  such  a  state  of  political 
excitement  as  prevailed  from  November,  1885,  to  July,  1886. 
It  was  in  the  former  month  that  rumours  began  to  get  abroad 
that  the  "  liberal  measure  of  local  self-government,"  which  Glad- 
stone had  spoken  of  in  his  Midlothian  speeches  as  desirable  for 
Ireland,  meant  Home  Rule.  At  midwinter  it  was  stated  that 
he  had  invited  Parnell  to  confer  with  him  on  the  scheme,  and 
to  suggest  guarantees  for  the  preservation  of  law  and  i)eace  in 
Ireland  when  Home  Rule  should  have  been  conceded.  Never- 
theless, many  Liberals  refused  to  believe  that  there  was  any 
truth  in  the  reports,  and  several  of  their  party  leaders  announced 
that  they  still  remained  opposed  to  any  grant  of  legislative 
independence  to  Ireland. 

But  when  the  Tories  had  been  evicted  from  office  in 
January,  1886,  and  Gladstone  came  into  power,  his  proceedings 
showed  that  rumour  had  not  lied.  It  soon  became 
to^the^Honfe  ^^°^^"  ^^^^  ^^""^  premier  was  drafting  a  Home 
Rule  Bill—  Rule  Bill,  and  that  violent  dissensions  were  on 
disseiiions  ^^^^  ^"  ^^^  cabinet,  since  several  members  of  it 
were  not  prepared  to  follow  him  in  his  new 
departure.  In  March,  the  president  of  the  Local  Government 
Board,  Mr.  Joseph  Chamberlain,  the  best-known  leader  of  the 


THE   FIRST   HOME   RULE   BILL.  187 

Radical  wing  of  the  party,  resigned  his  office,  as  did  Mr.  George 
Trevelyan,  the  secretary  for  Scotland.  Bat  the  bulk  of  the 
Liberal  party  were  still  in  the  dark  as  to  the  exact  form  which 
the  projected  bill  would  take,  and  it  was  quite  uncertain 
whether  the  majority  were  prepared  to  follow  the  premier.  All 
that  was  known  was  that  there  were  bound  to  be  some  secessions 
when  Gladstone's  plan  was  set  forth.  Meanwhile  the  Con- 
servatives were  commencing  a  vigorous  agitation  against  any 
concession  to  Parnell,  and  the  Irish  Protestants  of  Ulster  were 
fiercely  proclaiming  that  they  would  resist,  even  with  armed 
force,  any  attempt  to  place  them  in  subjection  to  the  Home 
Rule  majority  in  the  south  and  west. 

On  the  8th  of  April,  the  bill  was  at  last  introduced  and 
explained  by  the  premier,  in  a  speech  occupying  nearly  four 
hours.  It  was  proposed  to  establish  an  Irish 
parliament  in  Dublin,  consisting  of  309  members  ^f  ^j^g  ^-^^i 
sitting  in  a  single  chamber ;  by  a  device  strange  to 
British  ideas,  these  members  were  to  be  of  two  classes,  206 
representing  the  boroughs  and  counties,  while  the  remainder 
were  to  be  peers  or  senators  of  an  anomalous  sort,  chosen  for 
long  periods,  and  not  liable  to  lose  their  seats  at  a  dissolution. 
The  Imperial  Government  was  to  retain  control  over  the  army, 
matters  of  external  trade,  the  customs  and  excise,  and  foreign 
policy.  The  rest  of  the  affairs  of  Ireland  were  to  be  entrusted 
to  the  Dublin  parliament,  which  would  have  in  its  power  the 
police,  the  maintenance  of  law  and  justice,  all  matters  of 
internal  taxation,  education,  and  all  the  executive  and  adminis- 
trative parts  of  the  governance  of  the  realm.  By  an  elaborate 
financial  scheme,  Gladstone  calculated  that  Ireland  should  pay 
;^3, 244,000  a  year  to  the  Imperial  exchequer  as  her  contribu- 
tion to  the  management  of  the  British  empire  ;  she  would  have, 
he  thought,  about  ^7,000,000  more  for  her  own  local  purposes. 
No  Irish  members  were  for  the  future  to  come  to  Westminster, 
so  that  the  Crown  was  to  be  the  only  formal  link  between  the 
two  kingdoms. 


1 88    ENGLAND  IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY. 

The  heated  debates  which  followed  lasted  from  the  8th  of 

April  to  the  7th  of  June.     Parnell  expressed  his  satisfaction 

with  the  bill,  thou2"h  he  claimed  that  financially 
Split  in  the  ijirTiJx  •      \ 

Liberal  ^^  ^^^  a  hard  bargam  for  Ireland.     It  remained 

Party— The  to  be  seen  whether  the  defection  from  the  Liberal 
bill  rejected.  ,11,1  ,  r 

ranks  would  be  large  enough  to  compensate  for 

the  eighty-six  well-disciplined  followers  whom  he  was  about  to 
lead  into  the  ministerial  lobby.  Gradually,  however,  it  began 
to  be  clear  that  the  split  in  the  Liberal  ranks  was  much  deeper 
than  Gladstone  had  hoped.  Lord  Hartington  and  most  of  the 
Whig  section  of  the  party  were  known  to  be  alienated,  and  it 
was  also  found  that  Mr.  Chamberlain  and  Mr.  Bright  were 
about  to  be  followed  into  opposition  by  a  considerable 
number  of  the  Radicals.  Member  after  member  arose  on  the 
Liberal  side  of  the  House  to  complain  that  the  guarantees 
given  for  the  loyalty  of  Ireland  were  too  weak ;  or  that  no  pro- 
tection was  afforded  for  the  minority  in  Ulster  who  disliked 
Home  Rule ;  or  that  the  proposed  financial  arrangements  were 
unworkable;  or  that  the  removal  of  the  Irish  members  from 
Westminster  broke  up  all  connection  between  the  kingdoms ; 
or,  more  simply,  that  persons  with  the  antecedents  of  Parnell  and 
his  followers  could  not  be  trusted  with  power.  When  the 
crucial  division  on  the  second  reading  of  the  bill  was  taken  on 
June  19,  no  less  than  ninety-three  Liberals  voted  against  the 
Government,  and  the  measure  was  thrown  out  by  a  majority  of 
thirty  (341  to  311).  Mr.  Gladstone  at  once  dissolved  parlia- 
ment, though  it  was  not  seven  months  old,  and  appealed  to  the 
country  to  endorse  his  new  policy  (June  25). 

The  general  election  of  July,   1886,  was   by  far  the  most 

bitterly  fought  contest  of  the  present  half-century. 
and"'*Glad^  I^isruption  of  old  party  ties  amongst  the  Liberals 
stonians"—  lent  it  a  particularly  personal  animosity,  since 
decUon"^'^^^    every  "  Unionist "  of  the   last   parliament  found 

his  seat  attacked  by  a  "  Gladstonian."  The  latter 
charged   their  former  friends  with   disloyalty  and   desertion; 


HOME    RULE    DEFEATED.  189 

the  former  replied  by  taunting  the  majority  with  blind  sub- 
servience to  Gladstone,  and  with  making  terms  with  the  friends 
of  traitors  and  assassins.  The  stake  at  hazard  was  by  far  the 
greatest  of  the  century ;  the  Unionists  believed  that  their  defeat 
would  mean  civil  war  in  six  months,  and  the  possible  disrup- 
tion of  the  empire.  Gladstone,  on  the  other  hand,  held  out 
the  prospect  of  a  pacified  and  friendly  Ireland — a  thing  of 
which  no  man  had  ever  ventured  to  dream — and  warned  his 
opponents  that  even  if  they  won  they  had  nothing  to  offer  but 
a  policy  of  interminable  and  hopeless  coercion  for  the  sister 
island.  Passions  on  both  sides  ran  higher  than  at  any  other 
crisis  that  men  could  remember,  yet  it  was  satisfactory  to  find 
that  the  election  itself  was  carried  out  without  any  of  the  riot- 
ing or  the  corruption  that  used  to  be  so  common  in  the  days 
before  the  Ballot  Act. 

The    result    was    decisive;    the   majority    of    the    Liberal 
Unionists  kept  their  seats — seventy-eight   of  them   appeared 
in  the  new  parliament.     On  the  other  hand,  the 
Gladstonians  had  lost  some  forty  or  fifty  seats,  Defeat  of  the 
and  retained  no  more  than   191.     The    Conser-  _'rhe 
vatives  were  316  strong,  and  the  Parnellites  85.  Liberal- 
When  Lord  Hartington,  as  head  of  the  Liberal  party. 
Unionists,    explained    that    he    and    his    friends 
would  not  amalgamate  with  the  Conservatives,  nor  take  ofifice, 
but  would  never  join  in  any  combination  with  the  Gladstonians 
so  as    to    imperil  the   position   of  the  incoming  ministry,    it 
became  clear  that  a  long  spell  of  exile  from  office  awaited  the 
friends  of  Home  Rule.     For  most  intents  and  purposes  the 
Conservatives  might  count  on  a  majority  of  a  hundred. 

When  Lord  Salisbury  took  office  for  the  second  time,  in 
August,  1886,  with  such  a  powerful  alliance  at  his  back, 
domestic  politics  began  to  quiet  down  with  a  surprising  quick- 
ness. The  tendency  was  most  marked  in  Ireland,  where  many 
expected  that  the  rejection  of  the  Home  Rule  Bill  would  be 
followed  by  riots  and  outrages  worse  than  those  of  1882-83. 


190        ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

The  reverse  was  the  case ;  a  distinct  amelioration  was  visible 
after  the  fall  of  the  Gladstone  ministry,  and  a 
CamoaSi—  Prolonged  attempt  made  by  some  of  the  Parnel- 
Mr.  Arthur  lite  leaders  to  raise  agrarian  trouble  by  a  scheme 
fe^ret^ary"^^  called  "  the  Plan  of  the  Campaign  "  was  a  failure. 
Their  idea  was  to  repeat  in  a  minor  form  the 
"No  Rent"  edict  of  1882,  binding  the  tenantry  in  certain 
estates  to  cling  together  and  refuse  to  pay  more  rent  than 
they  thought  fit.  But  Mr.  Arthur  Balfour,  the  new  secre- 
tary for  Ireland,  proved  by  far  the  most  successful  adminis- 
trator that  had  been  seen  across  St.  George's  Channel  for  a 
generation.  Indeed,  he  was  the  only  statesman  of  modern 
days  who  has  gained  rather  than  lost  credit  while  holding 
the  unenviable  post  which  was  now  allotted  to  him.  The 
wild  abuse  of  the  Parnellite  members  in  the  Commons  did 
not  seem  to  worry  him,  and  he  showed  an  imperturbable 
indifference  to  all  their  accusations  and  raillery.  The  Govern- 
ment aided  him  by  passing  a  Coercion  Bill  of  a  very  stringent 
kind  (July,  1887),  which,  on  the  whole,  served  the  end  for 
which  it  was  designed,  since,  in  spite  of  certain  riots  ending  in 
bloodshed — such  as  the  "  Mitchelstown  massacre  "  of  October 
12 — Ireland  was  growing  less  disturbed  all  through  1887-88. 
The  systematic  obstruction  which  the  Parnellites,  aided  by 
many  Gladstonians,  offered  to  this  bill,  only  led  to  the  passing 
of  new  and  much-needed  reforms  of  procedure  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  which  made  the  useless  wasting  of  time  more 
difficult.  An  Irish  Land  Bill  which  accompanied  the  Coercion 
Act  was  less  successful,  pleasing  neither  tenants  nor  landlords, 
and  soon  being  forgotten. 

The  year  1887  is  best  remembered,  however,  for  no  matter  of 

party  politics,  but  for  the  Queen's  First  Jubilee 
The  Queen's    \^  .  ,  u  1^   . 

Jubilee— The  G^^^^  21),  a  great  ceremony  held  to  commemo- 

Imperial  rate    her    Majesty's    completion    of    the    fiftieth 

year  of  her   reign.     A   solemn    service   held   at 

Westminster  Abbey  was  attended  by  all  the  Royal  family,  and 


THE   JUBILEE   OF    1887.  I91 

witnessed  by  an  assembly  gathered  not  only  from  the  United 
Kingdom,  but  from  India  and  all  the  colonies.  Lord  Beacons- 
field's  "  Imperialism  "  still  dominated  his  party,  and  everything 
was  done  to  make  the  Jubilee  a  manifestation  of  the  loyalty  of 
the  whole  empire.  In  this  aspect  it  was  most  successful ;  not 
only  did  the  premiers  of  the  autonomous  colonies  and  a  party 
of  Indian  rajahs  join  in  the  ceremony  in  London,  but  rejoic- 
ings and  demonstrations  all  round  the  world  bore  witness  to 
the  respect  and  love  entertained  for  our  aged  sovereign  in 
every  corner  of  her  dominions.  Both  at  home  and  abroad  the 
political  effects  of  the  Jubilee  were  admirable.  They  may  be 
taken  to  mark  the  complete  predominance  of  the  Imperial  idea 
first  brought  into  prominence  by  Disraeli  half  a  generation 
before. 

It  was  in  truth  the  interests  of  Greater  Britain — a  name  just 
beginning   to   come   into  vogue — rather   than  purely    foreign 
affairs,  which  formed  the  most  important  parts  of 
our    external    politics    from    this    time    onward.   Brftain^and 
Whether  under  Liberal  or  Conservative  ministers,  the  Conti- 
England  has  steadfastly  refused  to  entangle  her-  p^  ^ 
self  in  alliances  with  any  of  the  Continental  powers. 

In  the  seventies,  while  Bismarck  was  the  dominant  statesman 

in  Europe,  Germany,  Austria,  and  Russia  formed  an  alliance, 

the  "  League  of  the  Three  Emperors,"  which  was 

the   governing   factor   in  European    politics.      It  France  of 

might  have  seemed   natural  for  us  to  look    for  9"*"  position 

in  EsTvot 
friends  in  France  and  Italy,  and  for  some  time  * 

we  were  on  excellent  terms  with  both  these  powers.  But 
things  changed  after  the  Egyptian  war  of  1882  ;  our  occu- 
pation of  Egypt  was  a  bitter  blow  to  France,  all  the  more  so 
because  it  was  entirely  her  own  fault  that  she  did  not  become 
our  partner.  Having  refused  to  aid  us  in  crushing  Arabi,  she 
was  never  again  able  to  get  her  foot  into  the  Nile  valley,  and 
has  always  cherished  a  rather  unreasonable  grudge  against  the 
power  which  finished  the  business  without  her.     The  facts  that 


192        ENGLAND    IN    THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 

we  have  never  formally  proclaimed  a  protectorate  over  Egypt, 
and  that  Mr.  Gladstone  made  his  unfortunate  engagement  to 
evacuate  the  country  "when  circumstances  permitted,"  have 
furnished  a  dozen  French  foreign  ministers  with  opportunities 
for  harassing  English  cabinets  with  inquiries  as  to  the  date  of 
our  departure,  and  the  reasons  for  our  delay.  All  reforms 
which  we  made  in  Egypt,  even  the  most  simple  and  necessary, 
formed  the  subject  of  angry  diplomatic  notes.  The  anomalous 
position  occui)ied  by  a  state  which  exercises  the  reality  of 
suzerainty  without  its  legal  form,  rendered  such  criticism  only 
too  easy. 

As  long  as  France  stood  alone  in  Europe,  and  the  League  of 
the  Three  Emperors  still  existed,  her  intrigues  against  us  in 

Egypt  were  tiresome  rather  than  dangerous. 
The  Triple  Circumstances,  however,  gradually  changed ;  the 
Friendship  ^^^^  Alexander  II.  had  been  assassinated  by 
between  the  NihiHsts  in  i88i,  and  his  son  Alexander  III. 

France.  "^^^^  ^"^^^  ^  friend  of  Germany.     Moreover,  the  old 

Emperor  William  I.,  who  always  preserved  a 
kindly  feeling  for  Russia,  died  in  i888,  and  with  his  decease 
the  influence  of  Bismarck,  all-powerful  in  Germany  since 
i866,  and  in  Europe  since  1870,  began  to  wane.  Even 
before  his  old  master's  death,  the  breach  between  the  two 
empires  had  been  clearly  marked,  and  Bismarck  had  publicly 
announced  that  a  continuance  in  his  former  policy  was  no 
longer  possible.  There  followed  a  rearrangement  of  the 
relations  of  the  great  Continental  powers,  Germany  and 
Austria  avowing  that  they  had  concluded  formal  treaties  with 
Italy,  and  taken  her  into  partnership  in  a  new  "  Triple 
Alliance."  Russia  and  France,  thus  left  in  isolation,  were 
forced  by  the  logic  of  circumstances  to  look  toward  each  other 
for  support.  Their  drawing  together  only  began  to  be  evident 
about  1891-92;  down  to  that  date  the  Russian  Government  had 
doubted  too  much  the  solidity  of  the  French  republic,  whose 
ministries    were   always  changing,  and  whose  very  existence 


THE   TRIPLE   ALLIANCE.  193 

had    seemed    imperilled  in    1887-88   by  the   intrigues  of  the 
theatrical  adventurer  General  Boulanger. 

The  position  on  the  Continent  was  still  further  modified  by 
the  dismissal  of  Prince  Bismarck  from  office  by  his  active  and 
imperious  sovereign,  the  young  emperor  William 
IL,  who   refused   to  be  dominated  by  the  great  of  Germany 
statesman  as  his  grandfather  had  been  (March,  —Dismissal 
1890).       From    that    time    onward    the    German 
monarch  himself  has   taken   the   place  as   the   mainspring  of 
Continental    politics    which    the    great    chancellor    so    long 
occupied.     It  was  for  some  time  feared  that  his  ambition  and 
energy  would  lead  him  into  stirring  up  trouble  all  over  Europe, 
but  he  has  disappointed  his  enemies.     Though  his  policy  can- 
not always  be  praised,  and  his  unending  flow  of  speeches  and 
telegrams  is  not  always  guided  by  discretion,  he  has  practically 
displayed  an  ability  and    moderation    for   which    he   at    first 
received  no  credit. 

The  attitude   of  the   English  cabinet,   in  face  of  the  new 
alliances  on  the  Continent,  was  bound  to  be  reserved.     Con- 
sidering how  we  were  embroiled  with  France  in 
Egypt,  and  how  suspicious  we  have  always  been  policy  of  the 
of  Russia  in  the  East,  it  might  seem  obvious  for  British 
England  to  draw  near  to  the  Triple  Alliance,  to 
whom  our  fleet  would  be  invaluable  in  time  of  war.     But  any 
formal  treaty  with  the  three  powers  might  possibly  involve  us 
in    struggles    in    which    we    have    no    interest,     and    causes 
of    friction    with     Germany    were    continually    arising    over 
colonial  matters,  owing  to  the  perpetual  annexation  in  remote 
corners  of  the  earth  to  which  both  Bismarck  and  William  II. 
were  prone.    Hence  the  foreign  policy  of  the  Salisbury  ministry 
in  1886-92  (like  that  of  their  successors  ever  since)  consisted 
in  careful  balancing  and  neutrality,  with  the  final  object  of  not 
offending  both  groups  of  Continental  powers  at  once.     If  we 
were  led  into  such  a  misfortune,  it  might  end  in  their  sinking 
their  grudges  and  making  common  cause  in  order  to  plunder 

o 


194        ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

the  British  Empire — a  possible  though  not  a  probable  con- 
tingency. 

Meanwhile  the  internal  policy  of  the  Conservative  ministry 
was   conducted    on    much    the    same    lines    as    that    of    the 

Beaconsfield  ministry  of  1874-80 — the  party  had 
Domestic  learnt  its  lesson,  and  strove  to  combine  practical 
Lord  reforms  and  administrative  efficiency  at  home  with 

Salisbury's      ^.j^^    safeguarding    of   the    empire    abroad.      The 

first  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  whom  Lord 
Salisbury  appointed,  Lord  Randolph  Churchill,  tried  to  raise 
a  cry  for  economy,  and  actually  resigned  his  office  because 
he  thought  that  the  army  and  navy  estimates  were  too  high. 
But  his  declaration  found  no  echo  among  the  Conservative 
rank  and  file,  and  he  discovered  that  he  had  committed  political 
suicide  by  his  hasty  action.  All  through  the  years  1886-92 
the  cabinet  continued  to  produce  bills  for  domestic  reforms 
of  the  practical  kind,  such  as  the  Local  Government  Bill  of 
1888,  creating  the  elective  county  councils  which  have  worked 
so  w^ell  ever  since  their  creation ;  and  the  Free  Education  Act 
of  1 89 1,  which  made  the  education  in  elementary  schools 
gratuitous,  by  stopping  the  demand  for  the  "school  pence" 

which  parents  had  hitherto  been  obliged  to  pay. 
of  the  -^^t  ^^^^  most  successful  measure  carried  during 

National  the  whole  tenure  of  office  by  Lord  Salisbury  was 

undoubtedly  the  conversion  of  the  National  Debt 
in  1888.  Mr.  Goschen,  a  Liberal  Unionist  who  succeeded 
Lord  Randolph  Churchill  as  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer, 
devised  a  plan  for  offering  all  the  holders  of  the  "  Three  per 
Cents.  "  the  choice  of  being  paid  off"  at  the  full  nominal  value 
of  their  bonds,  or  of  retaining  them  and  receiving  2'^  per  cent, 
interest  instead  of  the  former  3  down  to  1903,  and  2 J 
per  cent,  after  that  date.  Very  few  of  the  fundholders  asked 
for  their  money  back,  and  since  1889  the  country  has  saved 
;^i,4oo,ooo  a  year  by  the  transaction.  So  far  is  the  value 
of  the  securities  from  being  lowered  by  the  diminished  interest, 


THE   PARNELL  COMMISSION.  I95 

that  the  2f  per  cent.'s  are  now  worth  far  more  than  the  old 
"Consols,"  and  generally  stand  at  ^iio  and  over  for  the 
nominal  ^100  stock. 

The  Irish  question,  in  spite  of  the  increasing  quiet  across 
St.  George's  Channel,  was  never  long  forgotten ;  and  the  two 
chief  incidents  by  which  it  was  kept  before  the 
public  eye  were  very  curious.  The  Times  news-  Jj!|  ^^^°^^ 
paper,  publishing  a  series  of  articles  on  "  Parnellism  and  the 
and  Crime,"  ended  them  by  printing  a  letter  Commission, 
purporting  to  have  been  written  by  Parnell  himself 
in  extenuation  of  the  Phoenix  Park  murders.  He  was  made 
to  say  that  policy  compelled  him  to  denounce  them,  but  that 
"Burke  got  no  more  than  his  deserts."  Parnell  denied  the 
authenticity  of  the  letter,  and  in  August,  1888,  began  an  action 
for  libel  against  the  Times ^  putting  his  damages  at  ;^i 00,000. 
The  Government  resolved  to  appoint  a  special  commission 
to  inquire  into  all  the  charges  brought  by  the  Times  against 
Parnell  and  his  followers.  The  three  judges  who  sat  to  try 
the  matter  (September,  1888 — January,  1889),  found  that  "the 
respondents  did  nothing  to  prevent  crime,  and  expressed 
no  bona  fide  disapproval  of  it ;  that  they  disseminated  newspapers 
tending  to  incite  to  sedition  and  the  commission  of  crimes; 
and  that  they  entered  into  a  conspiracy  to  promote,  by  a 
system  of  coercion  and  intimidation,  an  agrarian  agitation  for 
the  purpose  of  impoverishing  and  expelling  from  the  country 
the  Irish  landlords."  But  they  also  found  that  the  supposed 
letter  of  Parnell  on  the  Phoenix  Park  outrage  was  a  forgery, 
and  acquitted  him  of  the  charge  of  insincerity  in  denouncing 
it.  The  document  had  been  concocted  and  sold  to  the  Times 
by  Richard  Pigott,  the  disreputable  editor  of  a  Home-Rule 
newspaper  in  Dublin,  who  finally  confessed  to  the  forgery, 
fled  to  Spain,  and  there  committed  suicide  to  escape  arrest. 
For  having  been  deceived  by  this  villain,  the  Tii?ies  had  to  pay 
;^5ooo  to  Parnell. 

The  Gladstonian  party  elected   to  consider  the  verdict  of 


196        ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

the  special  commission  as  amounting  to  a  complete  rehabili- 
tation of  Parnell,  his  followers,  and  his  methods. 
Jivor?e^uif  ^^  ^^^^  return  to  the  House  of  Commons  he 
received  an  ovation  from  them,  and  was  loaded 
with  compliments  and  testimonies  of  confidence.  But  it  was 
only  for  a  year  more  that  they  were  to  have  the  benefit  of  his 
company  and  co-operation.  In  1890,  to  the  surprise  of  the 
whole  political  world,  he  appeared  in  the  unenviable  position 
of  co-respondent  in  the  Divorce  Court.  The  petitioner  was 
his  friend  and  lieutenant  Captain  O'Shea.  Hardly  any  attempt 
was  made  by  Parnell  to  defend  the  case,  which  presented 
many  discreditable  incidents.  The  verdict  was 
d  ^^^se*^^  *®  accordingly  given  against  him,  but  it  seemed 
Parnell  from  at  first  that  it  would  not  make  much  difference 
his  leader-  -^^  ^^^^  position,  as  his  followers  showed  their 
usual  wonderful  discipline,  and  re-elected  him 
their  chief.  But  they  had  reckoned  without  Mr.  Gladstone 
and  the  "Nonconformist  conscience."  Public  opinion  in 
England  has  got  beyond  the  stage  in  which  a  notorious 
evil-liver  can  be  accepted  as  leader  of  a  great  party,  and  the 
bulk  of  the  Liberal  masses,  among  whom  the  dissenting 
element  was  specially  strong,  were  profoundly  grieved  and 
disgusted  at  the  exposure.  Gladstone,  expressing  their  views, 
issued  a  manifesto  to  the  effect  that  "  the  continuance  of 
Mr.  Parnell  in  his  leadership  would  be  productive  of  disastrous 
consequences."  The  threat  that  English  support  would  be 
entirely  withdrawn  from  Home  Rule  so  disturbed  the  Irish 
party,  that  a  majority  of  them  came  to  the  conclusion  that  their 
chief  must  be  dethroned.  There  was  a  bitter  struggle  among 
them,  for  some  feared  their  autocrat,  and  others  could  not  for- 
get his  past  services.  But  the  Catholic  priesthood  threw  its 
powerful  influence  into  the  scale  of  morality,  and  a  majority  of 
the  Irish  members  declared  Parnell  deposed,  and  elected  in  his 
place  Mr.  Justin  McCarthy,  an  amiable  literary  man  whose  con- 
trol over  them  was  not  likely  to  resemble  the  iron  rule  of  Parnell. 


DISRUPTION   OF   THE   IRISH   PARTY.  197 

The  ex-leader,  however,  refused  to  take  the   verdict  of  the 
majority,  and,  with  those  of  his   followers  who  adhered  to  him, 
formed    a    new    party,    which    appealed    to   the 
people  of  Ireland   against    "  English    dictation,"  f^d  Anti-^ 
as  exercised  by  Mr.  Gladstone.     Parnellite   and  Parnellites— 
Anti-Parnellite  candidates  contested  every  vacant  p  ^^^P^ 
Irish   seat,   and    Parnell    himself  scoured   every 
county  in  the  kingdom,  denouncing  the  traitors  and  weaklings 
who  had   betrayed   him.      The  discovery  that  his  adherents 
were  in   a    minority  only  spurred  him  on  to  fresh  exertions, 
which    his    health    could    not    stand.       After    some    open-air 
meetings   held    in    inclement  autum;!    weather,  he  caught   in- 
flammation of  the  lungs,  and  died  in  a  few  days  (October  6, 
189 1).     Contrary  to  expectation,  his  party  survived  his  death; 
the  bitterness  between  the  two  sections  of  Irish  members  was 
too  great  to  allow  them  to  amalgamate,  and  the  Parnellite  and 
Anti  Parnellite  factions  are  still  with  us. 

Nine  months   after   the   death  of    Parnell,   Lord  Salisbury 
dissolved  Parliament,  which  had  now  reached  its  sixth  year  of 
hfe.    The  general  election  of  July,  1892,  resembled 
all  its    predecessors    for  the    last    quarter  of  the  Salisbury's 
century,  in  that  the  outgoing  ministry  lost  by  it.  ministry- 
It  seems  that  there  is  always  a  considerable  body  ^^rf^Q? 
of  electors  who  are  discontented  with  any  existing 
Government,  and  vote    for  the  opposition,  whatever  may  be 
the  politics  of  the  "  Ins  "  and  the  "  Outs."     This  "  swing  of  the 
pendulum"  was  clearly  visible  in  1892.      Though  it  could  not 
be  alleged  that  Lord  Salisbury's  cabinet  had  been  conspicuously 
inefficient    or   unsuccessful   in   administering  the    empire,  yet 
numerous  constituencies    with   an   old  Liberal   record,  which 
had  gone  Unionist  at  the  time  of  the  first  Home  Rule  Bill,  now 
reverted  to  their  former  politics.      In  the  new  Parliament  there 
appeared  269  Conservatives  and  46   Liberal  Unionists,  against 
274  Gladstonians  and  81  Irish  Home  Rulers.       The  Parnellite 
faction  seemed  almost  wiped  out,  and  kept  only  nine  seats.     It 


198        ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

was  notable  that  England  had  a  clear  majority  against  Home 
Rule  (273  to  197),  while  the  Gladstonian  majority  of  40 
in  the  whole  United  Kingdom  consisted  entirely  of  Irish 
members. 

Gladstone,  therefore,  when  he  took  office  in  August,  1892, 
was  to  a  great  extent  in  the  hands  of  his  allies  from  across  St. 
George's  Channel.  He  was  compelled  to  make 
Gladstone's  Home  Rule  the  main  plank  of  his  platform,  though 
premiership  niany  of  his  British  followers  had  their  minds  set 
—The  on  other  topics,  such  as  the  disestablishment  of 

programme.  ^^^  Churches  of  Scotland  and  Wales,  the  abolition 
of  the  House  of  Lords,  temperance  legislation  in 
the  direction  of  "  Local  Option,"  anti-vaccination,  universal 
suffrage,  the  payment  of  members  of  Parliament,  and  number- 
less other  local  or  sectional  ideals.  A  political  opponent 
cruelly  styled  them  "a  fortuitous  concourse  of  enthusiasts  or 
faddists,  grouped  under  a  banner  for  which  they  felt  a  very 
secondary  interest."  But  whatever  were  the  thoughts  of  some 
of  his  followers,  Mr.  Gladstone  himself  was  earnestly  set  on 
carrying  his  Home  Rule  Bill ;  to  guide  it  through  Parliament, 
he  trusted,  would  be  the  last  great  work  of  his  life.  He  was 
now  eighty-three  years  of  age,  and  personal  infirmities  were  at 
last  beginning  to  tell  on  his  strong  physique ;  if  Ireland  was 
once  satisfied,  he  hoped  to  sing  his  Nimc  Diinittis^  and  retire 
from  the  wearing  duties  of  public  life. 

All  through  the  autumn  of  1892  the  details  of  the  forth- 
coming bill  were  carefully  kept  dark,  but  in  February,  1893,  it 
^,  .     was  launched  on  the  waters  of  debate  by  the  aged 

Home  Rule  premier.  The  measure  differed  considerably  from 
•  the  project  of  1886.     It  proposed  to   constitute 

an  Irish  parliament  of  two  houses,  not  of  one.  The  upper 
house  was  to  consist  of  48  members,  chosen  only  by  persons 
with  a  rateable  holding  of  ;^2o  or  more.  The  lower  house  was 
to  contain  103  members,  representing  the  existing  parliamentary 
constituencies  of  Ireland.      Another  crucial  difference  from  the 


THE    SECOND   HOME   RULE   BILL.  199 

bill  of  1886  was  that  Irish  members  to  the  mmiber  of  80  were 
to  be  left  at  Westminster  and  to  vote  on  all  Imperial  matters, 
though  not  on  purely  English  or  Scottish  concerns.  A  third 
was  that  Ireland  was  to  pay,  not  a  lump  sum  of  ^3,200,000, 
but  a  percentage  or  quota  of  between  four  and  five  per  cent,  of 
the  whole  revenues  of  the  three  kingdoms.  But  the  main 
points  of  the  first  Home  Rule  Bill  were  kept :  Ireland  was  to 
manage  her  own  internal  administration,  police,  laws,  taxation, 
and  education. 

The  bill  was  debated  at  enormous  length ;  it  took  the  whole 
time  between  February  and  September  to  carry  it  through  the 
Commons,  and  this   was   only  accomplished   by 
stifling  debate  on  many  of  its  clauses  by  means  of  The  bill 
the  "  closure."      But  there  was  a  certain  unreality  Commoi^ 
in  the  discussion,  owing  to  the  fact  that  every  one  and  rejected 
knew  that  the  real  tug  of  war  would  come  only  i_^rd|^ 
when  the  bill  had  passed  the  Lower  House  and 
gone  up  to  the  Lords.     The  third  reading  passed  (September  i, 
1893)  by  301  to  267.    The  Lords  then  took  it  in  hand,  and  made 
short  work  of  it ;  on  September  8  it  was  rejected  by  a  majority 
of  about  ten  to  one  (419  to  41). 

Two  courses  were  now  open  to  Gladstone.    He  might  dissolve 
Parliament  at  once  and  ask  for  the  country's  verdict  on  the 
conduct  of  the  Upper  House.     If  a  triumphant 
majority  were  again  given  in  his  favour,  the  Lords  {lonal  posi- 
would  probably  bow  before  the  storm  and  let  the  tion  of  the 
bill  pass,  as  they  had  done  with  the  Reform  Bill  JJinTstr^.''^^ 
of  1832.      On  the  other  hand,  it  was  open  to  him 
to  reject  the  idea  of  a  dissolution,  and  to  proceed  to  carry  other 
Liberal  measures  such  as  his  party  might  desire,  undertaking  to 
recur  to  Home  Rule  at  the  first  favourable  opportunity.     From 
taking  the  first  course  he  was  probably  deterred  by  the  fact  that 
no  outburst  of  popular  feeling  followed  the  rejection  of  the  bill; 
the  news  was  received  everywhere  with  apathy.     There  was 
every  reason  to  fear  that  a  general  election  might  only  lead  to 


200         ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 

"the  back  swing  of  the  pendulum,"  and  a  reversion  towards 
Unionism. 

Accordingly  Gladstone  retained  ofifice,  and  announced  that 
after  a  very  short  recess  he  should  summon  Parliament  to  meet 
Gladstone  ^g^^^  ^^^  November  for  active  legislative  work, 
remains  in  But  great  difficulties  met  him :  the  Irish  were 
°    ^®*  discontented ;  the  English  Radicals  were  split  up 

into  cliques  and  coteries  which  pulled  different  ways ;  the  party 
discipline  was  evidently  deteriorating.  All  that  was  done  in 
the  way  of  important  legislation  was  the  passage  of  a  Parish 
Councils  Bill,  which  gave  parishes  the  same  power  of  electing 
boards  to  settle  their  local  affairs  which  the  last  Conservative 
Government  had  given  to  the  counties. 

In  March,  1894,  the  premier  announced  that  he  was  com- 
pelled to  lay  down  his  office ;  the  stress  of  work  was  too  much 
for  one  whose  eyesight  and  hearing  were  both 
^f^cTaStone  ^^ginni^S  ^o  fail.  His  last  speech  as  prime 
— Lord  minister  had  consisted  of  a  diatribe  upon  the  per- 

Rosebery  yersity  of  the  House  of  Lords  in  setting  itself  against 
the  House  of  Commons ;  and  he  more  than  hinted 
that,  if  they  continued  to  act  as  they  had  done  on  the  Home 
Rule  question,  the  nation  must  take  in  hand  their  reform  or 
extinction.  It  was,  therefore,  curious  that  a  member  of  the 
recalcitrant  house  should  be  chosen  to  fill  Gladstone's  vacant 
place.  His  successor  was  Lord  Rosebery,  his  Foreign  Secretary, 
an  able  man  in  early  middle  age,  w^ho  had  won  considerable 
applause  by  his  administration  of  our  external  affairs,  but  who 
could  not  be  called  a  typical  Radical  or  an  entluisiastic  Home 
Ruler.  In  many  ways  he  was  more  like  the  Whig  statesmen 
of  the  eighteenth  century  than  the  Liberal  politicians  of  to-day, 
combining  considerable  literary  talents  and  a  wide  knowledge 
of  foreign  affairs  with  a  keen  passion  for  the  turf.  He  is  the 
only  British  premier  who  has  ever  run  winners  of  the 
Derby  (1894  and  1895). 

On  Mr.  Gladstone's  retirement,  it  became  at  once  evident 


LORD   ROSEBERyS   MINISTRY.  2oi 

that  his  party  depended  more  for  its  coherence  and  strength  on 

his   personal   ascendency   and   unrivalled    know- 

DiffcrGnccs 
ledge  of  parliamentary  tactics  than  any  one  had  ©f  opinion 

supposed.  When  the  veteran  chief  was  removed,  in  the  Liberal 
and  his  eloquence  and  enthusiasm  were  no  longer 
constraining  his  followers  to  obedience,  they  soon  began  to 
fall  asunder.  One  of  Lord  Rosebery's  first  public  utterances 
was  a  declaration  that  so  long  as  England,  "  the  predominant 
partner  "  in  the  United  Kingdom,  was  clearly  opposed  to  Home 
Rule,  that  question  must  be  relegated  to  the  future.  He  ex- 
pressed a  conviction  that  England  might  be  converted,  but  the 
time  of  her  conversion  was  not  yet  come.  Such  an  announce- 
ment from  a  minister  whose  majority  consisted  entirely  of  Irish 
Home  Rulers,  was  not  likely  to  help  him  in  keeping  the  party 
together.  It  was  obnoxious  alike  to  Parnellites  and  Anti- 
Parnellites.  On  the  other  hand,  many  English  Gladstonians 
disliked  Lord  Rosebery's  foreign  policy,  which  was  practically 
a  continuation  of  that  of  the  late  Conservative  cabinet,  and 
was  decidedly  Imperialistic  in  its  tendencies.  He  was  the  first 
Liberal  minister  since  Lord  Palmerston  who  took  a  strong 
line  with  our  neighbours,  and  refused  to  be  bullied.  Radicals, 
too,  complained  that  the  party  of  progress  found  an  inappro- 
priate head  in  a  member  of  an  effete  and  reactionary  House 
of  Lords.  Some  styled  him  an  opportunist,  and  denied  that 
he  could  be  called  Liberal  at  all. 

With  half  his  party  discontented  and  the  other  half  apathetic, 
it  was  not  likely  that  Lord  Rosebery  would  make  much  of  a 
record  in  legislation.  His  ministry  only  lasted  ^^^  ^^  ^^^.^ 
sixteen  months  (March,  1894-June,  1895).  The  Rosebery's 
cabinet  introduced  a  good  many  bills ;  the  most  "^^"^stry. 
important  were  a  Welsh  Disestablishment  Act,  an  Irish  Land 
Act,  and  a  Local  Option  Bill  to  please  the  temperance  party. 
But  it  did  not  succeed  in  passing  any  one  of  them,  the  votaries 
of  each  measure  hindering  the  progress  of  the  others,  because 
their  own  was  not  given  priority.     It  was  felt,  moreover,  that 


202        ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

all  the  debates  were  somewhat  hollow,  for  when  such  measures 
were  sent  up  to  the  House  of  Lords,  they  would  certainly  be 
rejected;  yet  the  Government  did  not  seem  anxious  to  appeal 
to  the  country  against  the  attitude  of  the  Peers.  Such  an  un- 
satisfactory state  of  affairs  was  bound  to  come  to  an  end,  and 
in  June,  1895,  Lord  Rosebery  took  the  opportunity  of  a  chance 
division  on  a  small  military  matter,  which  had  gone  against  the 
ministry,  to  dissolve  Parliament. 

The  gloomy  forebodings  of  the  ministerialists  were  more 
than  fulfilled  by  the  general  election  of  July,  1895.     It  resulted 

in  a  complete  defeat  of  the  Gladstonians ;  they 
bur  's se  ond  ^^^PP^^^^^  i"  the  new  house  with  only  177 
Ministry— A  supporters  instead  of  260,  while  the  Conservatives 
^b^in"t^^  numbered    340,    and   the    Liberal   Unionists    71. 

Even  if  the  70  Anti-Parnellite  and  12  Parnellite 
Irish  members  were  credited  to  the  Radical  party,  they  were 
still  in  a  minority  of  more  than  150.  Lord  Salisbury,  therefore, 
resumed  office  with  the  largest  majority  at  his  back  that  has 
ever  been  enjoyed  by  an  English  premier  during  the  past  two 
generations.  He  strengthened  his  position  by  recruiting  his 
ministry,  not  only  from  among  Conservative  leaders,  but  from 
the  ranks  of  the  Liberal  Unionists.  The  latter  no  longer 
refused,  as  they  had  in  1886,  to  amalgamate  with  their  allies; 
in  addition  to  Mr.  Goschen,  who  had  been  taken  into  the  last 
Conservative  ministry,  both  Lord  Hartington  and  Mr. 
Chamberlain,  representing  respectively  the  Whig  and  the 
Radical  wings  of  their  party,  received  cabinet  office,  the  one 
as  President  of  the  Council,  the  other  as  Secretary  for  the 
Colonies.  Several  minor  posts  went  to  their  followers.  Thus 
the  present  administration  must  be  styled  Unionist  rather  than 
Conservative. 

It  has  now  held  office  for  nearly  four  years,  and  appears 
likely  to  see  the  century  out.  The  main  part  of  the  annals  of 
1895-99  consists  of  a  series  of  foreign  complications,  for  none 
of  which  the  Government  can  be  held  really  responsible;  they 


THE   ARMENIAN   MASSACRES.  203 

have  several  times  assumed  a  most  threatening  aspect,  and  it 
is  only  in  the  last  few  months  that  the  clouds 
have  begun  to  clear  away.  Most  of  the  troubles  ^^^^Jjf^^gg  ^f 
arose  from  the  inevitable  responsibilities  of  the  Govern- 
empire ;  there  is  no  quarter  of  the  globe  in  which  ^^^^"1^^3,11 
there  may  not  appear  at  any  moment  serious  massacres, 
problems  for  a  British  minister.  When  Lord 
Salisbury  assumed  office  the  chief  areas  of  disturbance  were  in 
the  Levant.  The  timid  but  fanatical  Sultan  Abdul-Hamid,  en- 
raged at  a  weak  and  futile  Armenian  rising  in  Asia,  permitted, 
or  more  probably  ordered,  a  series  of  horrible  massacres  of 
Armenians  in  districts  far  remote  from  any  focus  of  insurrection. 
These  atrocities,  extending  over  the  two  years  1895-97,  exceed 
in  horror  anything  that  happened  in  Bulgaria  in  1877,  but  have 
passed  unpunished.  The  Russian  Government  considered  that 
it  was  not  to  its  interest  to  interfere,  as  it  had  no  wish  to 
encourage  the  Armenian  nationality.  The  German  emperor, 
who  is  set  on  establishing  a  strong  political  and  trade  interest 
at  Constantinople,  was  equally  determined  to  keep  matters 
quiet.  England  was  the  only  power  which  really  wished  to 
take  any  steps  towards  bringing  pressure  on  the  Sultan,  and 
failed  to  effect  anything  when  it  was  obvious  that  she  stood 
alone — France,  Italy,  and  the  United  States  confining  them- 
selves to  platonic  expressions  of  disgust  at  the  atrocities.  An 
attempt  was  made  by  some  of  the  Radical  party  to  throw  odium 
on  Lord  Salisbury  for  his  inability  to  chastise  Turkey,  but  it 
was  discouraged  by  their  more  responsible  chiefs,  who  saw 
that  the  ministry  could  not  act  against  the  will  of  Russia  and 
Germany  without  incurring  grave  risk  of  war. 

The  Armenian  question  was  in  full  development  w^hen  two 
other   crises   arose.     The  first  was  a   dangerous 
quarrel  with  the  United  States.     There  was  a  dis-  zuelan 


pute  on  foot  in  South  America,  as  to  the  exact  Boundary 

boundaries  of  the  British  colony  of  Guiana  and 

the    Republic  of  Venezuela ;   the   territory   in   question   was 


204        ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

mainly  pathless  jungle,  but  it  was  believed  to  contain  valuable 

gold-mines.     On  the  pretext  that  any  acquisition  of  territory  in 

America  by  a  European  power  was  contrary  to  the  "  Monroe 

doctrine,"  the    theory  which  states  that  "  America  is  for  the 

Americans,"     President    Cleveland    sent    a    message    to    his 

Congress,    laying   down    with    unnecessary    peremptoriness    a 

claim  to  interfere  in  the  matter.     An  outburst  of  anti- British 

feeling  in  the   United  States  followed,   and  in  the  winter  of 

1895-96    affairs   looked    very   threatening.      Fortunately,    the 

English  Government   kept  cool,   and  American    feeling  soon 

calmed  down,  so  that  later  in  the  year  an  amicable  arbitration 

on    the   disputed   boundary  was  arranged.     It  is  pleasant  in 

1899  to  see  how  entirely  the  relations  between  Great  Britain 

and  the  United  States  have  changed,  and   to    recognize  that 

the  wise   and   conciliatory  attitude    of  our   cabinet   has   had 

its  reward. 

The  Venezuelan  question  was  at  its  height  when  trouble 

broke   out    in    South   Africa,    caused  by   Dr.   Jameson's  mad 

and   piratical    raid  into  the  Transvaal    Republic 

The  German  (j^ecember  29 — January   i,    1896),   of  which  we 

and  Dr.  shall  have  to  speak  at  greater  length  when  dealing 

Jamesons  -^j^   ^^^q   colonies.      The    rao-e    with   which    the 

raid.  ^  . 

German    emperor's  most   gratuitous  telegram  to 

President  Kriiger  about  Jameson's  surrender  was  received  in 
England,  contrasted  strangely  with  the  quiet  way  in  which 
Mr.  Cleveland's  equally  unwise  utterances  had  been  taken  a 
few  weeks  earlier.  Noting  the  trend  of  English  public  opinion, 
and  finding  himself  unlikely  to  be  supported  by  other  powers, 
William  II.  successfully  explained  away  his  telegram,  and  the 
war  scare  passed  over. 

As  if  the  Armenian,  Venezuelan,  and  Transvaal  difficulties 
were  not  enough  for  one  year,  we  were  on  very  bad  terms 
with  France  m  1896  over  the  interminable  Egyptian  question. 
The  re-conquest  of  the  Soudan  from  the  Khalifa,  the  suc- 
cessor of  the  late  Mahdi,  having  been  determined  upon,  the 


FRICTION    WITH   FRANCE.  205 

French  Government  intrigued  to  frustrate  it,  by  preventing  the 
Egyptian  Government  from  finding  money.    They 
were  so  far  successful  that  Great  Britain  had  to  ^|th^pr|nce 
advance   ;^5oo,ooo   herself,   to    provide   for   the  in  Egypt, 
projected  expedition.     In  West  Africa,  too,  there  ^^  Sitml^^' 
was    continually    friction    with    French    expedi- 
tions, which  were  pouring  into  the  Niger  valley,  and  cutting 
off  our  old-established  colonies  from  their  trading  communica- 
tions with  the  interior.     The  same  was  the  case  in  the  far 
East,  where  the  French  Government   had   been    encroaching 
on  Siam,  and  was  trying  to  absorb   the  whole  country ;  but 
finally  it  came  to  a  compromise  with  Great  Britain,  by  which 
both  powers  agreed   to   leave   alone  what  remained   of  that 
kingdom. 

The  year  1897  opened  not  quite  so  unprosperously  as  1896, 
but  there  was  still  trouble  in  the  air.     The  Armenian  question 
was  not  exhausted  when  an  insurrection  broke  out 
in  Crete,  to  which  the   Greek  Government  lent  between 
open  support.     Miscalculating  the  strength  of  the  Turkey  and 
Turkish  empire,  or  hoping  that  a  vigorous  stroke 
might  set  all  Eastern  Europe  in  a  flame,  the  Greeks  finally 
declared  war  on  the  Sultan,  and  tried  to  invade  Macedonia. 
But  the  powers  refused  to  move ;  it  was  generally  thought  that 
Greece  had  no  right  to  open  the  Eastern  question  in  such  a 
violent  manner,  and  she  received  no  aid.     Her  raw  army  was 
overwhelmed  by  the  numbers  of  the  Turks,  and  fled  in  panic 
(April,  1897),  so  that  the  king  had  to  sue  for  peace  in  the  most 
humiliating  fashion.    The  powers  insisted  that  the  terms  should 
not  be  too  hard,  for  no  one  wished  to  encourage  the  Sultan, 
and  Greece  was  let  off  with  the  cession  of  a  few  mountain 
passes  and  a  fine  of  four  miUion  Turkish  pounds. 

This  Eastern  crisis  having  passed  over  without  any  further 
developments,  the  inhabitants  of  the  United  Kingdom  and  of 
the  whole  British  Empire  were  able  to  celebrate,  undisturbed 
by  any  grave   trouble   from  without,  the  Queen's  "  Diamond 


2o6        ENGLAND   IN   TPiE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

Jubilee"  on  the  20th  of  June,  1897.  Having  completed  the 
The  Queen's  sixtieth  year  of  her  reign,  our  aged  sovereign  has 
Diamond  now  worn  the  English  crown  for  a  longer  period 
Ju  1  ee.  ^j^^^    ^j^y    ^^    ^^^    ancestors  —  her   grandfather, 

George  III.,  who  died  in  the  fifty-ninth  year  after  his  accession, 
is  the  only  British  monarch  who  approaches  her  length  of  rule. 
As  the  years  roll  on,  her  subjects  have  realized  more  and  more 
their  obligations  to  one  who  has  been  the  model  of  constitu- 
tional sovereigns,  and  has  set  so  high  the  standard  of  public  as 
well  as  of  domestic  duty.  The  pageant  of  her  state  visit  to  St. 
Paul's  was  notable,  even  more  than  that  of  1887,  as  show- 
ing the  unanimity  and  loyalty  of  her  vast  colonies  and  posses- 
sions; representatives  from  every  spot  where  the  British  flag 
waves  being  given  their  place  in  the  procession.  Two  whole 
generations  of  her  subjects  have  now  grown  up  to  manhood 
since  Victoria's  accession,  and  it  is  almost  impossible  for  them 
to  realize  England  without  her.  Comparing  1837  with  1899, 
we  see  what  great  things  have  been  done  in  her  name, 
and  trust  that  our  descendants  may  look  upon  the  "  Vic- 
torian age"  as  not  the  least  glorious  period  in  our  country's 
annals. 

Many  may  have  hoped,  after   the  Jubilee,  that  the  short 

remainder  of  the  century  might  pass  by  without   our  being 

troubled  with  any  more  wars  or  rumours  of  wars. 

of^WeTt^"^      But  the  year  1898  was  destined  to  see  us  nearer 

African  to  an  open  breach  with  a  first-rate  European  power 

France  ^^^^  ^^^"  ^^  ^^^^  ^^^"  ^^"^^  ^^^  ^"^  ^^  ^^^  struggle 
in  the  Crimea.  We  have  already  had  occasion 
to  allude  more  than  once  to  the  restless  activity  of  France  in 
thrusting  her  way  into  the  neighbourhood  of  our  possessions, 
both  in  Africa  and  in  the  East.  Early  in  1898  grave  trouble 
was  caused  by  her  enormous  annexations  in  the  valley  of  the 
Niger  and  the  Congo,  where  for  the  last  fifteen  years  she  has 
been  building  up  an  empire  which  exists  more  on  paper  than 
in  reality,  a  dozen  forts  and  a  few  movable  columns  of  black 


BATTLE   OF   OMDURMAN.  107 

troops  being  supposed  to  Gallicize  a  region  half  the  size  of 
Europe,  most  of  whose  inhabitants  have  never  seen  a  French- 
man. After  pushing  in  behind  our  colonies  of  the  Gambia  and 
the  Gold  Coast,  and  cutting  them  off  from  inland  expansion,  the 
French,  in  1896-97,  made  an  attempt  to  seize  the  Lower  Niger, 
in  spite  of  a  treaty  dating  back  to  1890  which  defined  our 
interests  in  that  quarter.  It  was  only  after  considerable 
friction  that  an  agreement  was  made  in  June,  1898,  by  which 
the  tricolour  was  hauled  down  from  some  of  their  most 
advanced  stations,  pushed  well  within  the  British  sphere  of 
influence  :  much  was  given  up  to  them  that  might  have  been 
rightfully  withheld.  But  this  dispute  was  a  mere  nothing  to 
that  which  occupied  the  later  months  of  the  year. 

The  Soudan  expedition,  which  had  started  in  1896  to  destroy 
the  power  of  the    Khalifa  and   reconquer  the   valley  of  the 

Middle  Nile,  had  met  with  uniform  success  from  ^,     ^     ^ 

r  o-  ^"^  Soudan 
Its  first  start.  Under  the  able  guidance  of  Sir  expedition- 
Herbert  Kitchener,  the  commander  of  the  Egyp-  Battle  of 

.    ,     ,    ,         ,    ,       ,       .  ,  o    ,  Omdurman. 

tian  army,  it  had  cleared  the  dervishes  out  01  the 

province  of  Dongola  in  1896,  after  the  battle  of  Ferket.  In 
the  next  year  the  invaders  had  pushed  on  to  the  line  of  Abu- 
Hamed  and  Berber,  driving  the  enemy  before  them.  In  1898 
the  Khalifa  was  to  be  attacked  in  the  heart  of  his  empire  :  a 
considerable  body  of  British  troops  was  sent  up  to  join  the 
Egyptians,  and  in  April  the  advanced  guard  of  the  Arab  host 
was  destroyed  at  the  battle  of  the  Atbara.  In  August 
Kitchener  marched  on  Omdurman,  the  enemy's  capital,  and 
was  met  outside  its  walls  by  the  Khalifa  at  the  head  of  the  full 
force  of  his  barbarous  realm,  at  least  50,000  fighting  men.  In 
one  long  day's  fighting  these  fanatical  hordes  were  scattered 
and  half  exterminated;  it  is  calculated  that  11,000  were  slain 
and  16,000  wounded  before  their  fierce  charge  was  turned  back 
(September  i).  Omdurman  and  Khartoum  were  occupied,  and 
the  Khalifa  fled  into  the  desert. 

A  few  days  later  an  unpleasant  surprise  was  reserved  for 


2o8        ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

Kitchener  and  the  British  Government.  An  insignificant  French 
force,  under  Major  Marchand,  about  one  hundred 
dispute^  °  ^  ^^^^  ^^'^^^  ^^^  officers,  had  pushed  across  Central 
Africa  from  the  Congo,  and  seized  Fashoda,  a 
point  on  the  Nile  far  above  Khartoum.  By  means  of  this 
futile  occupation  the  French  Government  had  apparently  hoped 
to  establish  a  claim  to  a  portion  of  the  Nile  valley.  Long  ago, 
in  Lord  Rosebery's  time,  they  had  been  warned  that  any  such 
proceedings  would  be  treated  as  an  "  unfriendly  act,"  but  they 
had  nevertheless  gone  on.  Lord  Salisbury  now  informed  the 
French  foreign  minister  that  Major  Marchand  must  be  with- 
drawn, and  that  the  gravest  consequences  would  follow  if  he 
were  not.  We  were,  in  fact,  on  the  brink  of  a  war  with  France, 
for  her  intolerable  "  policy  of  pin-pricks,"  pursued  for  the  last 
ten  years,  had  rendered  any  further  yielding  impossible.  Fortu- 
nately, the  French  Government  faltered  and  made  submission : 
it  was  not  ready  to  fight  when  its  internal  politics  were  confused 
by  the  wretched  Dreyfus  case,  and  when  its  ally,  the  Czar, 
refused  any  prospect  of  help.  Marchand  was  withdrawn,  and 
a  treaty  has  just  been  signed  (March,  1899),  conceding  that  the 
whole  Nile  basin  falls  within  the  English  sphere  of  influence. 
This  is  certainly  the  greatest  triumph  for  English  diplomacy 
since  the  Berlin  treaty  of  1878. 

The  African  question  seems  settled,  but  ere  the  century  is 
out  there  may  be  grave  trouble  in  another  region,  the  extreme 
^,     P  East.     Since  the  war  of  1895  between  China  and 

Eastern  Japan,  the  Chinese  empire  seems  to  be  falling  to 

question.  pieces.    Our  own  wish  has  always  been  to  preserve, 

if  possible,  its  integrity,  to  favour  the  progress  of  reforms,  and 
meanwhile  to  maintain  the  "  open  door"  for  all  foreign  commerce 
in  all  its  ports.  This  policy  is  crossed  by  that  of  Russia, 
Germany,  and  France,  all  strongly  protectionist  powers,  who  wish 
to  establish  spheres  of  influence  in  China,  and  to  monopolize 
the  trade  of  them  for  themselves.  Russia  has  lately  obtained 
possession,  euphemistically  called  a  "  lease,"  of  the  northern 


THE   FAR   EAST.  209 

harbours  of  Ta-lien-Whan  and  Port  Arthur,  while  Germany 
has  seized  Kiau-Chau  and  the  surrounding  territory  on  similar 
terms.  To  balance  this  we  have  ourselves  taken  over  Wei-Hai- 
Wei,  which  faces  Port  Arthur  across  the  great  northern  Gulf  of 
Pechili.  We  have  also  extorted  from  the  Chinese  Government 
a  promise  not  to  alienate  any  of  Central  China,  the  basin  of  the 
Yang-tse-Kiang  river.  To  what  further  developments  these 
"  leases "  and  agreements  may  lead,  it  is  impossible  to  say, 
but  it  is  evident  that  the  gravest  dangers  of  friction  between 
the  great  powers  underlie  them. 

While  our  foreign  relations  in  every  part  of  the  world  have 
been  so  strained  during  the  last  few  years,  it  is  natural  that 
domestic  matters  should  be  less  interesting.  The  g^.^^^  ^f 
Government  has  carried  out  a  certain  amount  of  political 
small  social  reforms,  and  one  or  two  measures  of  P^^  ^^^' 
somewhat  greater  importance.  The  wisdom  of  some  of  them 
is  not  quite  clear.  The  relaxation  of  the  vaccination  laws  seems 
a  mere  piece  of  pandering  to  popular  sentiment ;  and  the  Irish 
Local  Government  Act  of  i8g8  is  an  experiment  whose 
dangers  are  obvious,  and  which  can  only  be  justified  by 
success.  Now  that  the  horizon  abroad  is  clearer,  it  may  be 
hoped  that  the  old  policy  of  unpretentious  domestic  reform, 
which  Lord  Beaconsfield  first  bound  up  with  the  Conservative 
programme,  may  be  persevered  in  by  his  successors.  Few 
governments  certainly  have  had  such  chances  as  the  present 
administration ;  their  adversaries  are  not  only  weak,  but  torn  by 
their  internal  discords.  Mr.  Gladstone  died  on  May  19,  1898, 
after  three  years  of  retirement  from  politics,  at  the  great  age 
of  eighty-eight.  His  name  and  influence  had  done  much  to 
keep  his  party  together  even  after  he  had  withdrawn  from 
active  life.  Since  his  death  they  have  been  more  divided  than 
ever,  and  seem  unable  to  formulate  any  accepted  political 
programme.  The  Anti-Parnellite  party  has  resolved  itself 
into  two  hostile  factions,  which  only  unite  to  repudiate  the 
Parnellites.     The  Radical  party  has  changed  its  leader  twice 

P 


2IO        ENGLAND   IN   THE    NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

in  three  years,  and  seems  rent  by  intrigues  resting  on  purely 
personal  quarrels.  "  Home  Rule,"  we  have  been  told  on 
good  Radical  authority,  "  is  dead,"  yet  it  is  difficult  to  see 
under  what  other  banner  the  heterogeneous  elements  of  the 
opposition  are  to  unite.  Nevertheless,  it  is  impossible  to 
forget  that  the  "  swing  of  the  pendulum  "  has  regularly  ruled 
the  general  elections  of  the  last  thirty  years ;  it  will  be  curious 
to  see  if  it  shows  itself  once  more  in  that  of  1901. 

Meanwhile  the  century  draws  towards  its  close,  with  domestic 
politics  in  a  far  more  stagnant  condition  than  at  any  other 
date  since  the  days  of  Palmerston.  Foreign  affairs,  after  the 
termination  of  the  Fashoda  incident,  seem  almost  equally  quiet, 
and  the  observer  can  pause  for  a  moment  on  the  edge  of  the 
twentieth  century  to  look  back  on  the  later  years  of  the 
nineteenth. 

As  we  had  occasion  to  remark  in  the  chapter  which  dealt 
with  early-Victorian  England,  the  years  since  1850  have  not 
been  fraught  with  such  sweeping  changes  as  those  of  the 
previous  half-century.  For  the  most  part  they  have  been 
spent  in  the  working  out  of  problems  which  had  already  been 
formulated  in  the  previous  generation.  In  things  material  this 
has  notably  been  the  case.  We  are  still  engaged  in  perfecting 
the  inventions  of  our  grandfathers,  in  developing  already  dis- 
covered realms  of  fact  or  thought  rather  than  in  winning  new 
ones.  This  is  as  true  in  science  as  in  literature,  in  politics 
as  in  art.  The  great  new  departures  belong  to  the  first  half 
of  the  century ;  the  second  does  but  carry  them  on.  In  some 
channels  of  activity  the  current  seems  to  be  running  very 
slowly  in  1899,  and  in  none  more  so  than  in  literature.  The  list 
of  great  writers  now  at  work  compares  miserably  with  that  of 
1875,  and  still  worse  with  that  of  1850.  Few  men  of  the 
younger  generation  have  arisen  to  replace  the  lost  masters 
of  the  early- Victorian  age. 

In  some  respects,  it  cannot  be  denied,  the  later  years  of  the 
century  have  been  a  time  of  disillusion  and    disappointment. 


THE   END    OF   THE   CENTURY.,  21 1 

Many  of  the  ideas  that  inspired  enthusiasm  forty  years  ago 
have  been  tried  in  the  balance  and  found  wanting.  The  state 
of  foreign  poHtics  seems  heartrending  to  those  who  remembei 
the  dreams  of  peace,  Hberty,  and  international  good-will  which 
sanguine  prophets  held  out  as  the  inevitable  results  that  would 
follow  from  the  unification  of  Germany  and  Italy,  and  the 
establishment  of  a  parliamentary  republic  in  France.  Equally 
broken  is  the  ideal  of  the  elder  exponents  of  free  trade,  who 
believed  that  a  sort  of  industrial  Millennium  was  to  set  in, 
when  England  frankly  abandoned  protection  and  opened  her 
markets  to  all  the  producers  of  the  world.  The  promises  of 
1850  have  never  appeared  further  from  fulfilment  than  in  1899. 
The  same  kind  of  pity  for  lost  hopes  comes  over  us  when  we 
read  the  writings  of  well-meaning  persons  of  the  last  generation, 
who  were  imbued  with  such  a  blind  faith  in  scientific  discovery 
that  they  made  out  of  it  a  kind  of  "  gospel  of  science,"  which 
was  to  settle  all  mental  and  moral  problems.  We  no  longer 
imagine  that  new  facts  in  chemistry  or  physiology  will  help 
much  to  reform  the  evil  ways  of  the  world.  The  idea  that 
material  progress  must  necessarily  lead  to  moral  progress  has 
gone  out  of  fashion. 

But  if  we  face  the  coming  years  with  less  enthusiasm  and 
confidence  than  some  of  our  fathers  felt,  it  cannot  be  said  that 
we  look  forward  on  the  twentieth  century  with  fear  or  dis- 
couragement. Not  in  blind  pride  and  reckless  self-assertion, 
but  with  a  reverent  trust  that  the  guidance  which  has  not  failed 
us  in  the  past  may  still  lead  us  forward,  strong  in  the  belief  in 
our  future  that  grows  from  a  study  of  our  past,  we  go  forth  to 
the  toils  and  problems  of  another  age. 


CHAPTER   X. 

INDIA    AND    THE    COLONIES IMPERIAL    FEDERATION- 
CONCLUSION. 

When  the  nineteenth  century  opened,  the  British  flag  was 
already  planted  in  most  of  the  regions  where  it  now  waves, 
The  British  ^^^  ^"  almost  every  quarter  our  possessions  were 
Empire  in  mere  streaks  along  the  coast-line,  or  islands  of 
1800.  moderate  extent.      The  empire  which  the  elder 

Pitt,  Clive,  and  Warren  Hastings  had  won  for  us,  was  but 
in  an  early  stage  of  development.  Beyond  the  Atlantic, 
the  West  Indies,  with  their  rich  sugar  and  coffee  planta- 
Canada  and  ^^°'^^'  were  by  far  our  most  important  posses- 
the  West  sion.  Canada  was  still  mainly  French  in  popula- 
indies.  j.^Qj^^  ^^^^  ^^^^  really  settled  beyond  Toronto  and 

Kingston ;  inland  and  westward  there  was  nothing  but  wastes 
of  forest  and  prairie,  the  "  great  lone  land,"  which  was 
not  to  be  taken  under  cultivation  till  the  second  half  of  the 
century.  Then  tlie  British  claim  to  the  North-Western  Territory 
as  far  as  the  Arctic  Circle  was  only  marked  by  a  score  of  forts 
belonging  to  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company,  to  which  the  scanty 
Indian  population  came  to  barter  their  furs  and  skins.  A  fort 
on  Nootka  Sound  by  Vancouver's  Island  was  then  the  sole 
sign  that  British  colonization  was  al)out  to  extend  as  far  as  the 
Pacific.     Across  that  ocean  Australia  was  already  counted  as  a 

British  possession,  but  the  only  settlement  that  it 
Australia.  .    \  '  /         ^  ^  ^ 

contamed  was  the  convict  colony  of  Botany  Bay. 

It  had  been  founded  so  recently  as  1788,  and  Sydney  was  in 


THE   EMPIRE   IN    iSoi.  213 

its  earliest,  and  not  over  happy,  infancy.  In  India  we  were 
already  the  masters  of  broad  provinces,  and  all  the  three  pre- 
sidencies were  in  existence.     Bengal  and  Bahar,   ,    ,. 

India, 
the  prizes  of  Clive's  victory  at  Plassey  (1757),  were 

by  far  the  most  important  of  the  territories  that  obeyed  the 
East  India  Company,  and  Calcutta  was  already  the  greatest 
port  of  India.  But  the  Boml  ay  presidency  comprised  hardly 
anything  outside  the  island  and  city  which  give  it  its  name,  the 
old  dowry  of  Catharine  of  Braganza.  The  Madras  presidency 
consisted  of  four  or  five  scattered  patches  of  territory,  taken 
some  from  the  Nizam  of  Hyderabad,  some  in  a  recent  war 
(1793)  from  Tippoo  Sultan  of  Mysore.  Three  important 
native  princes,  the  Nawabs  of  Oude,  of  the  Carnatic,  and  of 
the  Deccan  (the  Nizam),  were  bound  to  us  by  somewhat 
elastic  ties  of  dependence ;  they  followed  our  lead  in  politics, 
and  supported  large  bodies  of  British  sepoys  by  their  subsi- 
dies. All  three  had  become  our  vassals  to  get  protection  from 
dangerous  neighbours  in  the  inland.  Sultan  Tippoo  and  the 
freebooters  of  the  Mahratta  confederacy.  Ceylon  had  just 
been  conquered  from  the  Dutch  (1796),  but  till  the  Treaty  of 
Amiens  it  was  quite  uncertain  whether  the  island  was  to 
remain  permanently  in  our  hands. 

In  Africa  our  hold  was  still  more  insignificant ;  half  a  dozen 
forts  on  the  pestilential  coast  of  Guinea  were  our  only 
ancient  colonies.     We  were  in  military  possession    . ,  .  - 

of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  taken  from  the  Dutch  the  Medi- 
in  1796,  but  this  important  settlement  had  not  terranean. 
been  confirmed  to  us  by  any  treaty.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
we  were  about  to  restore  it  to  the  Dutch  at  the  Peace  of 
Amiens,  and  our  permanent  hold  on  it  was  only  to  begin  in 
1806.  How  Egypt  was  won  in  1801  we  have  related  in  our 
first  chapter.  In  the  Mediterranean  there  was  no  spot  that  we 
could  really  call  our  own  save  Gibraltar.  From  Malta  we  had 
just  evicted  the  French  garrison,  and  Minorca  was  also  in  our 
hands    for   the   moment  (i 798-1802).     But   though  occupied 


214        ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

by  British  garrisons,  they  were  in  no  sense  British  pos- 
sessions. 

At  the  peace  of  1802  the  position  was  grievously  changed  for 
the  worse,  owing  to  the  reckless  way  in  which  we  gave  back  to 
Results  of  Bonaparte  all  the  points  of  vantage  from  which  we 
the  Peace  of  had,  with  such  difficulty,  evicted  his  republican 
Amiens.  predecessors.     Of  all  our  conquests,  only  Trinidad 

and  Ceylon  were  retained.  Spain  recovered  Minorca,  France 
all  her  West  Indian  possessions,  Holland  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope,  Surinam  and  Demerara,  Turkey  her  Egyptian 
Pashalik. 

When,  therefore,  the  short  and  troubled  period  of  peace  in 
1802-3  had  come  to  an  end,  we  had  to  repeat  the  wearisome 
Ene-lish  process  of  eviction  that  had  been  carried  out  once 

reconquests,  before  between  1793  and  1801.  In  the  first  three 
1803-1811.  years  of  the  struggle  with  Bonaparte,  the  dread 
of  an  invasion  of  England  was  too  pressing  to  allow  us  to  send 
large  expeditions  far  from  our  own  shores.  But  after  1805, 
the  sure  and  steady  reconquest  of  the  outlying  dependencies 
of  France  and  Holland  began.  The  Cape  was  recovered  in 
1806 ;  Curagoa  and  the  rest  of  the  Dutch  West  Indies  in  1807. 
Martinique,  Senegal  with  the  other  French  ports  of  West 
Africa,  and  also  French  Guiana  (Cayenne),  fell  in  1809  ; 
Guadaloupe,  in  the  West  Indies,  and  the  Isles  of  France  and 
Bourbon  in  the  East,  were  taken  in  1810  ;  and  with  the  capture 
of  the  great  and  wealthy  island  of  Java  in  181 1,  Napoleon 
ceased  to  possess  a  single  transmarine  colony.  He  had  him- 
self sold  Louisiana  to  the  United  States,  in  order  to  prevent  it 
falling  into  our  hands,  while  in  Hayti  (St.  Domingo),  once 
the  most  wealthy  of  all  the  French  dependencies,  the  garrison 
had  been  exterminated  by  the  insurgent  negroes,  who  had 
formed  an  anarchic  republic  in  servile  imitation  of  their  former 
republican  masters. 

While  the  tricolour  was  being  lowered  from  one  island  after 
another  in  the  Eastern  seas,  we  were  in  India  deeply  engaged 


LORD   WELLESLEY   IN    INDIA.  215 

in  a  struggle  against  French  influence,  if  not  against  French 
armies.      One   of   Bonaparte's    favourite    dreams  jn^ia— The 
was  to  stir  up  the  princes  of  Hindostan  against  conquest  of 
their    British   neighbours.      While    in    Egypt,  he  Mysore, 
had  sent  his  emissaries  to  Tippoo,  Sultan  of  Mysore  :  buoyed 
up  by  false  hopes  of  French  aid,  the  reckless  son  of  the  great 
Hyder  Ah  had  committed  himself  to  war  with  England.     But 
his  armies  had  been  scattered,  and  he  himself  fell  sword   in 
hand  as  he  strove  to  defend  the  breach  at  Seringapatam  from 
Baird's  stormers  (May,  1799).     About  half  his  dominions  were 
annexed  to  the  Madras  presidency. 

The  conquest  of  Mysore  was  but  the  first  blow  which  Lord 
Wellesley,  the  able  and  ambitious  Governor-General  of  India, 
directed  against   French  influence.     The  leading 
native  power  in  the   peninsula  was  the  Mahratta  ^gUggigy 
Confederacy,  a   league   of   five   great   rajahs,    of  and  the 
whom  four  owed  a  nominal  allegiance  to  the  fifth,  Confedeicv 
who   bore  the  title    of  Peishwa.     Most  of  these 
princes  had  taken   into   their   pay   French  officers,  who   had 
raised  and  disciplined  for  them    many   battalions    of  trained 
Sepoys.     Scindia  alone,  the  rajah  of  Gwalior,  possessed  some 
30,000  or  more  of  such  troops.      Wellesley  believed  that  there 
was  a  great  danger  for  the  British  power  in  the  existence  of 
such  large  masses    of   men  led  by  French  commanders,  and 
was  anxious  to  induce  the  Mahrattas  to  come  under   British 
suzerainty  and  dismiss  their  foreign  officers.      But  the  rajahs, 
proud  of  their  position  as  the  chief  military  power  in  India, 
had  no  wish  to  surrender  their  independence. 

Fortunately  for  Wellesley's  plans,  the  Peishwa,  Bajee  Rao, 
having  quarrelled  with  his  two  greatest  vassals,  Scindia  and 
Holkar,  fled  to  seek  the  protection  of  the  Bombay  Restoration 
Government,  and  was  induced  to  buy  his  restora-  of  the 
tion  to  his  throne  by  signing  the  treaty  of  Bassein  P^^^hwa. 
(1802).     By  this  instrument  he  undertook  to  subordinate  his 
foreign  policy  to  that  of  the  British,  and  to  pay  an  annual  tribute 


2i6        ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

for  the    subvention   of  a  body  of   British   troops.      He   was 

accordingly  restored  to  his  seat  at  Poonah  by  armed  force ;  but 

his  submission  to  the  governor-general  led  to  two  wars  between 

the  East  India  Company  and  the  other  Mahratta  princes. 

First  Scindia,  and  his  ally  the  rajah  of  Nagpore,  attacked  the 

British;  but  they  were  unable  to   hold  their  ground.      Lord 

Lake,  starting  from  Bengal,  beat  Scindia's  northern 
Battle  of  T  •  /XT  t^  o     X        J 

Laswari—       army  at  Laswari  (November  i,    1803),  and  took 

Capture  of      Delhi,   the  ancient  capital    of  India      There  he 

found  the  aged  Mogul  emperor,  Shah  Alum,  who 
had  long  been  the  captive  of  the  Mahrattas,  and,  having  rescued 
him  from  his  oppressors,  proceeded  to  use  his  name  to 
legitimize  all  our  doings  in    Hindostan.       Meanwhile,  Arthur 

Wellesley,     the    governor-general's    brother — the 

Battle  of         Wellington  of  a  later  day — was  operating  further 

Argaum —       to  the  south.     At  Assaye  he  cut  to  pieces  Scindia's 

b"'^'t*  French  Sepoys,  after  the  bloodiest  struggle   that 

India  had  yet  seen.  Fording  a  deep  river  and 
advancing  on  a  narrow  front  under  an  overwhelming  fire  of 
artillery,  he  threw  his  troops  upon  the  disciplined  battalions  of 
the  Mahratta  chief.  Nearly  a  third  of  the  British  fell,  but 
Scindia's  host  was  broken  and  his  regular  troops  cut  to  pieces 
(September  23,  1803).  A  few  weeks  later  Wellesley  attacked 
the  rajah  of  Nagpore  at  Argaum,  and  inflicted  upon  him  an 
equally  severe  lesson  (November  28,  1803).  The  allied  princes 
thereupon  came  to  terms,  and  acknowledged  the  British 
supremacy.  Scindia  was  compelled  to  surrender  Delhi  and  the 
Doab,  the  nucleus  of  our  "  North-West  Provinces,"  as  also 
some  maritime  districts  opposite  Bombay,  while  the  rajah  of 
Nagpore  ceded  Orissa,  on  the  eastern  coast  of  India,  whick 
was  incorporated  with  the  presidency  of  Bengal.     Immediately 

after  it  became  necessary  to  attack  Scindia's  rival 
of^H^lkar  "     ^"^  enemy,  Holkar,  who  tried  in  his  turn  to  expel 

the  British  from  North-Western  India.  He  was 
an  evasive  and  lightly  moving  enemy,  who  proved  very  difficult 


INDIA    IN    1805.  217 

to  catch,  but  was  finally  run  to  ground  and  beaten  at  Deeg  and 
Furruckabad  (November,  1804). 

Before  Holkar  was  quite  disposed  of,  Wellesley  had  been  com- 
pelled to  resign  the  governor-generalship  and  to  retire  home, 
on  account  of  his  many  quarrels  with  his  masters, 
the  East  India  Company  (1805).     They  did  not  Lord 
appreciate  the  greatness  of  his  conceptions  or  the  the^true  ^ 
splendour  of  his  conquests,  and  only  thought  of  creator  of 
him  as  a  great  spender  of  money.    It  was  Wellesley  Empire, 
who  really  built  up  the  British  Empire  in  India. 
Before  his  day  we  did  but  possess  a  few  scattered  provinces 
spread  along  the  coast.     He  it  was  who  conceived  the  idea  of 
pressing  all  the  native  states  to  accept  "  subsidiary  treaties," 
and  to  acknowledge  the  suzerainty  of  the  East  India  Company. 
By  seizing  and  retaining  Delhi,  the  old  imperial  city,  he  claimed 
for  his  masters  the  supremacy  in  the  peninsula,  which  had  slipped 
out  of  the  hands  of  the  Moguls  eighty  years  before.     His  un- 
bounded power  over  the  native  princes  who  were  vassals  of  the 
Company,  was  shown  by  his  annexation  of  the  whole  of  the 
Carnatic  in  1801,  because  its  nawabs  had  drifted  into  bank- 
ruptcy and   showed   themselves  utterly  unable  to   administer 
their  broad   realm.     For    similar   reasons,    he   cut    short    the 
borders  of  our  almost  equally  unsatisfactory  dependent,   the 
Nawab  of  Oude. 

After  Wellesley's  work  was  accomplished,  we  can  for  the 
first  time  speak  of  the  British  Empire  of  India ;  before  then 
there  was  at  most  a  British  Empire  in  India,  with  which  large 
sections  of  the  peninsula  had  no  political  connection. 

The  working  out  of  Wellesley's  plans  was  not  destined  to  be 
completed  for  many  years.     His  successors,  Lord 
Cornwallis  (1805)    and   Lord    Minto  (1807-13),  ^7f"°^" 
made    no    attempt    to    finish    the    subjection    of  Lords  Corn- 
the   native   states,  merely  patching   up   a    series  ^-  i^  ^ 
of  treaties  which  secured  the  integrity  of  our  new 
frontiers.      Lord    Minto    devoted    himself   to   the    complete 


2i8        ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 

conquest  of  Napoleon's  scattered  colonies  in  the  east,  occu- 
pying Bourbon  and  the  Isle  of  France  in  1809,  and  so  making 
an  end  of  the  privateers  who,  from  their  base  in  those  islands, 
were  wont  to  swoop  down  on  the  Indiamen  that  passed  by  on 
their  long  voyage  round  the  Cape.  He  also  overran  Java  and 
the  Spice  Islands  in  181 1,  sending  against  them  the  largest 
expedition  that  had  yet  been  fitted  out  in  British  India.  Thus, 
when  the  Congress  of  Vienna  met  in  1814,  the  tricolour  flag 
had  been  swept  completely  out  of  all  the  Eastern  seas. 

Nothing  is  more  striking  in  the  history  of  the  Napoleonic 
war  than  the  reckless  generosity  with  which  we  restored,  in 

1 814,  the  greater  part  of  their  lost  colonies  to 
Generous  the  new  governments  of  France  and  Holland,  in 
Great  order  that  they  might  make  a  fair  start  in  their 

Britain  at  subjects'  eyes,  and  not  take  over  the  administra- 
of  Viennaf      ^^^"  laden  with  the  burden  of  their  predecessors' 

sins.  In  our  solicitude  for  the  welfare  of  Louis 
XVIII.  and  King  William  I.,  we  gave  back  well-nigh  all  that 
we  had  conquered  since  the  beginning  of  the  century.  Malta 
was  retained,  and  the  Ionian  Isles,  with  the  full  consent  of  their 
inhabitants ;  there  was  no  reason  why  the  latter  should  any 
longer  follow  the  fate  of  Venice,  or  the  former  be  handed 
back  to  the  obsolete  order  of  the  Knights  of  St'  John.  We 
also  kept  the  French  Isle  of  France  and  the  Dutch  settlement 
at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  as  strategical  points  of  supreme 
importance  covering  the  route  to  India.  But  all  the  rest  was 
surrendered.  Java,  an  empire  in  itself,  the  very  pearl  of  the 
East,  went  back  to  Holland  along  with  Cura^oa  and  Surinam. 
To  the  French  were  restored  not  only  their  old  West  Indian 
Islands  and  their  insignificant  possessions  in  India,  but  several 
small  colonies  whose  cession  in  18 14  would  have  caused  no 
friction,  but  which  since  have  proved  intolerable  nuisances  to 
the  British  Empire.  From  Bourbon  they  have  in  recent  days 
pushed  over  to  Madagascar,  and  there  destroyed  our  trade  and 
our  flourishing  missionary  stations.     From  Goree  and  Senegal, 


THE   TREATY    OF  VIENNA.  219 

on  the  West  African  coast,  they  have  gone  out  to  conquer  the 
"  hinterland  "  of  our  old  colonies  of  Gambia  and  Sierra  Leone. 
Even  more  foolish,  perhaps,  was  the  restoration  of  St.  Pierre 
and  the  fishery  rights  on  the  coast  of  Newfoundland,  which 
have  been  used  ever  since  to  hinder  the  natural  development  of 
that  ancient  dependency  of  the  British  Crown.  All  these 
places,  insignificant,  perhaps,  in  18 14,  but  of  infinite  importance 
in  modern  days,  Liverpool  and  Castlereagh  gave  away  with  a 
reckless  indifference  to  the  future  which  we  cannot  too  much 
deplore. 

Down  to  18 1 5  the  story  of  the  Napoleonic  war  lends  to  the 
history  of  the  British  Empire  a  certain  unity  which  disappears 
after  that  date  is  passed.  From  the  Congress  of  Vienna  down 
to  the  days  of  Lord  Beaconsfield  and  the  new  Imperialism,  there 
are  very  few  connecting  links  between  the  annals  of  our  various 
dependencies.  The  history  of  each  group  must  be  followed 
out  separately  down  to  the  last  quarter  of  the  nineteenth 
century. 

India  first  demands  our  attention.     At  the  time  of  the  Treaty 
of  Vienna  there  ruled  at  Calcutta  a  governor-general  who  was  a 
worthy  successor  to  Wellesley,  and  completed  the 
work  from  which  his  great  predecessor  had  been  Marquis^ of 
so    prematurely     withdrawn.      Francis    Rawdon,  Hastings  in 
Marquis  of  Hastings,   one   of  the    last  surviving  Qm-khas    ^ 
heroes  of  the  war  of  American  independence,  was 
already  an  old  man  when  he  went  out  to  India  in  181 3,  but  he 
ruled  the  land  for  ten  years,  and  left  his  mark  behind  him.    His 
first    efforts    were    directed  against  the    Gurkhas,  the  warlike 
mountain  tribes  of  Nepaul,  who  were  too  prone  to  make  raids 
on  the  northern  limits  of  Bengal.     They  were  defeated  after 
much  hard  fighting  (1814-16),  and  driven  back  into  their  hills; 
but,  since  we  made  no  effort  to  take  away  their  independence, 
they   retained    no    grudge    against    us,   and   have    served  as 
auxiliaries  with  great  fidelity  and  courage  in  all  our  subsequent 
wars. 


220        ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

After    driving   back    the    Gurkhas,   Lord    Hastings   cleared 

Central    India    of  the    Pindaris,    a    number  of  companies  of 

mercenary  adventurers,  like  those  which  infested 

subjugation     Mediaeval   Italy,  who   had   been  for  many  years 

of  the  the  scourge  of  the  Deccan.     Directinp;  expeditions 

Mahrattas.  .  . 

against    them    from    all    the    three    presidencies, 

so   as  to  enclose    them  in  a  ring,  he  gradually  hunted  them 

down,  till  their  bands  broke  up  and  their  leader  Cheetoo  fled 

alone  into  the  jungle,  there  to  be  devoured  by  a  tiger  (1818). 

The  Pindari  war  led  Hastings  into  a  greater  struggle  with  the 

greater  part  of  the  Mahratta  states.     Their  princes  had  given 

the   freebooters    secret   help,  hoping  to  weaken    the    English 

power  by  their  aid.     The  leader  in  the  plot  was  the  Peishwa 

Bajee    Rao,   who   had   never   ceased    to    regret    the   state    of 

dependence   in   which  he    had   been   placed   by    the    Treaty 

of  Bassein,  and  wished  to  throw  off  his  vassalage  to  the  East 

India  Company.     His  allies  were  Appa  Sahib,  the  rajah  of 

Nagpore,   and   the  regents   who   ruled   the   dominion   of  the 

young  Holkar,  the  rajah  of  Indore.     But  formidable  as  the 

confederacy  appeared,  Hastings  crushed  it  without  much  effort. 

The   allies   were   never   allowed   to    combine :    the    rajah   of 

Nagpore   was    defeated   before  the  gates  of  his  own    capital 

(November,   1817);   the  armies  of   Holkar  were    scattered  at 

Mahidpore  (December,  18 17).     The  Peishwa,  hunted  from  his 

capital  Poonah,  was  brought  to  bay  at  Ashtee  (February  19, 

18 1 8),  and  so  thoroughly  beaten  that  he  came  into  the  British 

camp   and    surrendered   himself.     This  war  made  an  end  of 

the    Mahrattas   as  a  danger   to    India ;  the    confederacy    was 

dissolved,  and  the  Peishwa's  dominion  annexed  to  the  Bombay 

presidency.      The   Nagpore  rajah  was   deposed,   the    Holkar 

state  was  shorn  of  a  third  of   its  territories.     Not  only  were 

Holkar  and  the  new  rajah  of  Nagpore  compelled  to  become 

British  vassals  and  to  conclude  subsidiary   treaties   with    the 

East    India    Company,  but   their   compeers    Scindia  and    the 

Gaikwar  of  Baroda,  though   they  had   not  been   engaged   in 


SUBMISSION    OF   THE    MAHRATTAS. 


221 


the  war,  were  induced  to  follow  their  example.  Thus  the 
British  Empire  was  extended  over  all  Western  India,  and  the 
only  states  south  of  the  Himalayas   which  did  not  now  fall 


under  our  domination  were  the  Sikhs  beyond  the  Sutlej,  and 
the  ameers  of  distant  Scinde. 

From    1818   to    1838    India   enjoyed    a    long    interval    of 
comparative  quiet,  during   which   the    native   princes    settled 


222        ENGLAND   IN    THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

down  to  the  new  state  of  things,  while  the  governor-generals 
w^ere  mainly  engaged  in  organizing  our  newly 
The  Burmese  acquired  possessions.  The  only  war  of  impor- 
tance in  the  period  was  one  with  the  King  of 
Burmah  (1824-26).  That  barbarous  potentate,  in  utter  ignor- 
ance of  the  strength  of  British  India,  indulged  in  vain  dreams 
of  conquering  Bengal.  But  when  his  bands  crossed  the 
frontier  they  were  easily  routed,  and  an  expedition,  sent  by 
sea  to  Rangoon,  pushed  up  the  Irrawadi  to  within  a  few 
miles  of  Ava,  the  capital  of  Burmah.  Thereupon  the  king 
sued  for  peace,  and  obtained  it  on  conditions  of  ceding 
Assam,  at  the  foot  of  the  Himalayas,  and  the  long  swampy 
coast  district  of  Aracan. 

Events  far  more  important  than    the  Burmese  war   began 
in  1838.     Ever  since  the  beginning  of  the   century  we  had 
looked  with    suspicion    on    the   gradual  advance 
advance  °^   ^^^    Russians    in    Central    Asia.      Bonaparte 

towards  the    had    twice    (1800    and    1809)    endeavoured    to 
fronSer  ^^^^  °"  ^^^^  Russian  Government  to  an  overland 

expedition  against  India,  a  project  wholly 
chimerical,  as  long  as  the  waste  lands  east  of  the  Caspian 
and  the  independent  khanates  of  Turkestan  interposed  a 
barrier  of  many  hundred  miles  between  the  Russian  bases 
at  Orenburg  and  Astrakhan  and  the  westernmost  limits  of 
Hindostan.  But  since  1809  the  Russians  had  been  pushing 
steadily  forward;  and  in  1837  they  had  encouraged  their 
ally  the  Shah  of  Persia  to  besiege  Herat,  the  frontier  fortress 
of  Afghanistan,  and  had  begun  negotiations  with  the  Ameer 
Dost  Mahomed,  who  ruled  at  Cabul. 

The  advisers  of  Lord  Auckland,  governor-general  from 
1835  to  1842,  were  unreasonably  alarmed  at  these  intrigues, 
and  resolved  to  go  forward  to  meet  a  danger  which  was  not 
yet  imminent.  A  former  ruler  of  Afghanistan,  Shah  Sujah, 
was  living  as  an  exile  in  India  since  his  expulsion  by  Dost 
Mahomed:  we  concluded  a  treaty  with  him  (1838),  by  which 


THE   FIRST  AFGHAN   WAR.  233 

we  undertook  to  replace  him  on  his  throne,  he,  on  his  part, 

undertakinsf  to  become  the  friend  and  ally  of  the  , 

^  Lord 

British    Government.      Our    army    crossed    the  Auckland's 

Indus,  traversed  the  Bolan  Pass,  occupied  Can-  Afghan^ 

dahar,  and  stormed  the  fortress  of  Ghuzni  (1839).   Restoration 

Shah  Sujah  was  placed  upon  the  throne  of  his  *^  Shah 

ancestors  at  Cabul,  and  the  British  troops  began 

to  withdraw  towards  India ;  but,  as  some  of  the  Afghans  were 

still   up  in  arms,  we   left   garrisons   at    Cabul   and  Candahar 

to  aid  the  Shah. 

Any   ruler   maintained    on   his   throne  by  British  bayonets 

is  bound  to  be  unpopular  among  the  wild  and  fanatical  tribes 

of  Afghanistan,  and  Shah  Sujah's  subjects  were  npstruction 

determined   not  to   submit  to    the   friend  of  the  of  the  Cabul 

infidels.      In   the   winter   of   1841,    insurrections  &^''"son. 

broke   out   all   over  the  country :  the  Candahar  force,  under 

General   Nott,   successfully  maintained   itself,   but  a   dreadful 

disaster  happened  at  Cabul.     There    our  troops  were  in  the 

weak  hands  of  General  Elphinstone,  a  veteran  broken  down 

by  age  and    disease,    who  ought   never  to  have  been  left  in 

such  a  responsible    position.     He  divided   his  force,  sending 

one   brigade   under    Sir    Robert  Sale  to  hold  the  fortress  of 

Jelalabad,  which  commands  the  main  pass  from  India.     With 

the  other  he   intended  to  overawe  Cabul;  but   the  city  rose 

in   arms,  and   soon   he  was   blockaded   in   his   cantonments. 

His    provisions   ran    short,  and  after  much  desultory  fighting 

he  offered  to  evacuate  the  country  if  he  was  given  a  free  exit. 

The  treacherous  Afghans  eagerly  accepted  the  proposal,  but, 

when  the  troops  were  threading  their  way  through  the  snows 

of  the  Khoord-Cabul  pass,  fell  upon  them  and  in  a  running 

fight  of  three  days  exterminated  the  whole  force.     A  single 

officer.  Dr.   Brydon,  cut  his  way  to  Jelalabad  with  the  news 

that   all   his    comrades  had  perished.     This  was  the  greatest 

disaster   we   have   ever   suffered   in    the    East :    one    English 

regiment,  the    44th  foot,  and  five  regiments  of  sepoys,  4500 


224        ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

men  in  all,  were  absolutely  annihilated  ;  with  them  perished 
more  than  10,000  of  their  Hindoo  camp  followers. 

The  Indian  Government  was  slow  to  believe  in  such  an 
unprecedented  calamity,  but  when  it  was  realized,  a  powerful 
General  force  under  General  Pollock  entered  Afghanistan 

Pollock's  to  relieve  Jelalabad.  The  garrison  of  that  place, 
expedition,  however,  had  not  only  defended  it,  but  had  sallied 
out  into  the  open  and  defeated  the  main  army  of  the  enemy. 
Pollock,  picking  up  Sale's  victorious  troops  on  the  way,  marched 
on  Cabul,  on  which  point  Nott  also  pushed  forward  with  the 
Candahar  brigade.  The  Afghans  were  thoroughly  routed; 
Cabul  was  taken,  and  its  chief  buildings  blown  up  as  a  retribu- 
tion for  the  treacherous  massacre  of  Elphinstone's  army.  But 
Shah  Sujah  had  been  assassinated  long  ago,  and  there  was  no 
object  in  lingering  in  the  barren  and  hostile  country;  so  our 
armies  were  withdrawn,  and  Dost  Mahomed  was  permitted  to 
resume  the  throne  from  which  we  had  driven  him  (1842).  For 
more  than  thirty  years  successive  governor-generals  severely  let 
alone  the  country  where  we  had  suffered  such  a  disaster.  Lord 
Auckland's  "forward  policy,"  indeed,  had  been' wholly  unjusti- 
fiable ;  he  did  not  know  the  Afghans,  and  he  had  failed  to 
see  how  difficult  it  would  have  been  to  hold  such  a  country 
when  the  powerful  and  independent  Sikh  kingdom,  occupying 
the  Punjaub,  lay  between  us  and  the  only  direct  route  to 
Cabul. 

The  Afghan  war  was  finished  by  Lord  EUenborough,  an  able 
administrator,   whose    only    fault    was   his   tendency   to   issue 

magniloquent  proclamations  in  the  style  of  the 
Lord  Ellen-  first  Napoleon  (1842-45).  He  had  a  dangerous 
Battle  of  crisis  to  face,  as  our  prestige  had  been  greatly 
Meanee—  shaken  by  the  Cabul  disaster,  but  came  safely 
of"scir^e?"     through   it.     He  added  to  the  limits  of  British 

India  by  annexing  Scinde,  whose  ameers  had 
shown  symptoms  of  hostility  in  1843.  They  were  subdued  by 
Sir  Charles  Napier,  a  veteran  of  the  Peninsular  War,  who  beat 


THE   SIKH    WARS.  225 

at  Meanee  an  army  of  more  than  twelve  times  his  own 
numbers,  composed  of  gallant  tribesmen  who  repeatedly  pushed 
up  to  the  very  bayonets  of  the  British  troops  (February  17,  1843). 
This  was  one  of  the  most  astonishing  victories  ever  gained  in 
Hindostan. 

Two  years  later  we  found  ourselves  involved  in  a  war  with 
the  sole  remaining  state  in  India  which  preserved  its  full 
independence.  For  nearly  fifty  years  the  Punjaub  Run'itS'  h 
had  formed  a  powerful  kingdom  under  the  Sikh  and  the  Sikh 
despot  Runjit  Singh,  a  man  of  genius,  who  had  P°^^^- 
formed  his  co-religionists  into  an  invincible  army,  with  which 
he  conquered  his  Mohammedan  neighbours  and  held  down  all 
India  north  of  the  Sutlej.  Knowing  the  might  of  Britain,  he 
had  always  kept  on  the  most  friendly  terms  with  the  East  India 
Company,  but  when  he  died  in  1839  trouble  ensued.  The 
proud  and  fanatical  army  which  he  had  created  would  obey  no 
meaner  masters,  and  Runjit  Singh's  successors  perished,  the 
victims  of  military  mutinies  or  palace  conspiracies.  Quite 
contrary  to  the  will  of  their  nominal  rulers,  the  Sikh  troops 
resolved  to  attack  the  British,  hoping  to  take  Delhi  and 
conquer  the  whole  peninsula.  They  were  for  a  moment  not 
far  from  succeeding,  and  if  their  leaders  had  been  capable  and 
loyal  to  each  other,  the  consequences  of  their  adventure  might 
have  been  tremendous. 

In  December,    1845,   they  crossed  the  Sutlej    into    British 

territory  with  60,000  men,  and  found  themselves  confronted  by 

a  much  smaller  army  hastily  gathered  together  by 

Lord    Hardinge,   the    governor-general.     He  en-  Hardinee 

trusted   his  troops  to  Sir   Hugh   Gough,  a   hot-  and  the 

headed  old  soldier,  whose  only  tactics  consisted  l^„^^:^„ 
'  •'  invasion. 

in  hurling  his  infantry  straight  at  the  enemy  and 
endeavouring  to  sweep  them  away  with  one  desperate  charge. 
This  sort  of  attack  answered   well   enough  against  ordinary 
Indian  troops,  but  the  Sikhs  were  made  of  sterner  stuff.     The 
fighting  with   them   was    very   desperate;    no   less    than   five 


226        ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

pitched  battles  were  fought  between  December  i8,  1845,  and 
February  10,  1846. 

The  crucial  struggle  was  at  Ferozeshah,  where  Gough's  head- 
long courage  failed  on  the  first  day  to  force  the  Sikh  lines ; 
Battles  of  ^^^  Sepoy  battalions  flinched,  and  his  European 
Ferozeshah  regiments  suffered  the  most  frightful  losses.  Next 
an  bo  raon.  ^^^  ^^^  resumed  the  struggle ;  but  the  enemy, 
whose  losses  had  also  been  tremendous,  had  not  the  heart  to 
face  two  pitched  battles  on  successive  days,  and  sullenly  retired. 
The  campaign  terminated  at  Sobraon  (February  10),  when 
Gough  had  to  storm  a  circular  entrenched  position  with  the  Sutlej 
at  its  back.  Leading  his  troops  forward  with  his  customary 
impetuosity,  he  saw  them  driven  back  from  assault  after 
assault.  But  finally  the  Sikhs  ungarnished  one  front  of  their 
works,  while  reinforcing  the  rest ;  a  British  column  penetrated 
into  the  gap,  and  the  gallant  enemy  were  finally  driven  into  the 
Sutlej,  where  thousands  perished  when  their  bridge  of  boats 
broke  down.  Ten  days  later  the  British  army  appeared  in 
front  of  Lahore,  and  the  Sikh  government  asked  for  terms. 
We  recognized  the  young  rajah  Dhuleep  Singh  as  the  successor 
of  Runjit  Singh ;  but  he  was  ordered  to  pay  a  heavy  fine,  to 
cut  his  army  down  to  30,000  men,  and  to  surrender  the  south- 
eastern corner  of  his  dominions,  where  they  reached  nearest  to 
Delhi. 

But  the  spirit  of  the  Sikhs  was  not  yet  broken ;  they  looked 

upon  themselves,  not  as  beaten,  but  as  betrayed  by  incompetent 

generals,  and  were  quite  ready  to  try  the  fortune 

Chillian°         of  war  once  more.     Only  two  years  after  Sobraon 

wallah  and      (March,  1848),  Moolraj,  the  governor  of  Mooltan, 

^       *  massacred  some  British  officers,  and  appealed  to 

the  old  army  to  take  the  field  once  more  and  throw  off  the 
foreign  yoke.  The  whole  Punjaub  at  once  blazed  up  into 
insurrection,  and  the  work  of  1846  had  to  be  repeated. 
Unhappily  for  the  British  troops,  they  were  still  under  the 
command  of  the  headstrong  Gough,  who  showed  that  he  had 


SETTLEMENT   OF   THE   PUNJAUB.  227 

learnt  nothing  from  experience.     After  two  checks,  into  which 

his  rashness  led  him,  in  the  autumn  of  1848,  he  brought  the 

main  Sikh  army  to  action  at  Chillianwallah.    There  he  delivered 

a  frontal  attack  on  an  enemy  screened  by  a  jungle  and  covered 

by  a  tremendous  fire  of  artillery.     Some  of  the  British  brigades 

were  almost  blown  to  pieces,  but  the  valour  of  the  survivors 

evicted  the  Sikhs  from  their  lines,  and  Chillianwallah  counts  as  a 

victory  (January  11,  1849).    But  the  war  was  really  settled  by  the 

decisive  action  of  Goojerat  (February  6),  where  for  once  Gough 

was  persuaded  to  allow  his  artillery  to  batter  the  enemy's  lines 

before  the  infantry  was  let  loose.     Shaken  by  the  fire  of  eighty 

heavy  guns,  the  Sikhs  broke  when  the  attack  was  delivered,  and 

the  British  won  the  field  with  small  loss — a  great  contrast  to 

their  sufferings  at  Ferozeshah  and  Chillianwallah. 

A  month  later  the  whole  Sikh  army  laid  down  its  of^Jhe'"^"^ 

arms,   and    the    Punjaub    was    annexed    (March,  Punjaub  by 

1849).     The  problem  of  its  settlement  appeared  Lawrence 

likely  to   be  so  difficult  that   picked   men  were 

drafted   in   from   all   the   presidencies   to   take   up   the   task, 

their  chief  being  the  administrator  Sir  John  Lawrence.     The 

work  was  so  well  done  that  the  new  province  settled  down  into 

great  quiet  and  content,  and  when,  eight  years  later,  the  Sepoy 

mutiny  broke  out,  we  were  able  to  enlist  our  old  enemies  of  the 

Sikh  army  by  the  thousand  to  put  down  the  rebels  of  Delhi 

and  Oude. 

The  annexation  of  the  Punjaub  was  carried  out  by   Lord 

Dalhousie,  who  as  governor-general  did  more  to  extend  the 

limits  of  British  territory  than  any  of  his  prede- 

u     ^T         •       r  TT      •  x^  Lord  Dal- 

cessors  smce  the  Marquis  01  Hastmgs.     He  was  housie  and 

strongly  of  opinion  that  the  government  of  the  the  native 

princes 
feudatory  princes  was  so  bad,  that  it  was  for  the 

true  interest  of  India  that  as  many  of  them  as  possible  should 

be  got  rid  of,  and  their  possessions  taken  under  direct  British 

rule.     With  this  object,  he  refused  to  fall  in  with  the  prevailing 

native  custom  by  which  childless  rulers  were  allowed  to  adopt 


228        ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 

into  their  family  any  one  whom  they  chose,  and  to  pass  on  to 
Annexation  ^^^"^  ^^^^^  ^^^^1  rights  of  sovereignty.  In  this  way 
of  Satara  he  declared,  in  1848,  that  the  Mahratta  state  of 
an  agpur.  g^^^j.^  i^^^^  fallen  in  as  a  lapsed  fief  for  want  of  an 
heir.  In  1853  the  much  larger  and  more  important  principality 
of  Nagpore  was  annexed  on  the  same  principle,  and  formed 
into  the  "  Central  Provinces."  Jhansi,  a  third  Mahratta  state, 
was  taken  over  for  the  same  reason  in  1854.  When  Bajee 
Rao — the  Peishwa  who  had  been  stripped  of  his  dominions,  but 
not  of  his  title,  in  1818 — died  in  1853,  Dalhousie  refused  to 
allow  his  title  to  be  passed  on  to  his  adopted  son  Dhundu  Punt, 
and  gave  him  a  pension  instead.  These  acts  seemed  to  the 
Hindoos  to  strike  at  the  roots  of  all  family  life  and  ancestral 
custom.  They  could  not  understand  the  English  view,  by 
which  an  adopted  child  is  regarded  as  something  very  different 
from  the  actual  son  of  his  benefactor.  In  their  ideas,  the 
annexation  of  Nagpore  or  Jhansi  was  simple  robbery. 

Dalhousie  also  succeeded  in  shocking  Mohammedan  feeling 
by  his  seizure  of  Oude  in   1856.     The  last  king  of  that  state 

was   an    incurable    spendthrift    and    a    reckless 
Annexation  r     1  •  i  •     .  t^  n         •  r 

of  Oude  and     oppressor     of    his     subjects.       Dalhousie,    after 

part  of  rei:>eated  warnings,    declared   him    deposed,  and 

Burmah.  ^  *     .  .      r   u-  1.1       i_ 

made   a    new    province    out   01    his  wealthy  but 

dilapidated  realm.  To  these  enormous  confiscations  inside 
India,  he  added  one  external  conquest.  The  king  of  Burmah 
having  molested  the  English  merchants  of  Rangoon  on  many 
occasions,  Dalhousie  declared  war  on  him  in  1852,  and  drove 
him  out  of  Pegu  and  the  lands  at  the  mouth  of  the  Irrawaddy. 
They  were  added  to  Aracan,  and  formed  into  the  new  province 
of  British  Burmah. 

Dalhousie  was  something  more  than  a  mere  annexer  of 
Dalhousie's  territory.  He  was  a  great  reformer  and  organizer, 
internal  introduced    railways    and    telegraphs    into    India, 

po  icy.  fostered   the  education    of   the   natives,  and   en- 

deavoured to  give  them  more  places  in  the  civil  service  Ihap 


ORIGINS   OF   THE   SEPOY   MUTINY.  229 

had  seemed  good  to  his  predecessors.  Nevertheless,  his  actions 
must  be  considered  as  having  contributed  to  a  very  considerable 
degree  towards  precipitating  the  great  rebellion  which  broke 
out  soon  after  his  departure  for  England  in  1856. 

The  origins  of  this  fearful  convulsion  are  not  hard  to  trace, 
though  the  exact  proportion  which  each  cause  had  in  pro- 
ducing the  rising  of  1857  is  more  difficult  to 
ascertain.  The  Mutiny  was  mainly  a  military  Causes  of  the 
conspiracy ;  it  was  only  in  Oude  and  a  few  other  Condition  of 
districts  that  the  population  of  the  countryside  *^^  native 
took  any  active  part  in  it.  For  some  years  before 
the  outbreak  the  spirit  of  the  native  army  had  been  steadily 
deteriorating.  The  old  notion  of  the  invincibility  of  the 
British  arms  had  been  shaken  by  the  Afghan  disaster  of  1841, 
and  by  the  narrow  escape  from  defeat  in  the  Sikh  campaign  of 
1845-46.  No  tie  of  natural  loyalty  bound  the  Sepoys  to  the 
government  which  they  served ;  indeed,  a  very  large  proportion 
of  them  were  born  subjects  of  the  king  of  Oude,  and  resented 
his  deposition.  They  were  kept  true  by  their  pay  and  im- 
munities, by  their  respect  and  affection  for  their  officers,  and  by 
their  wholesome  dread  of  the  European  garrison  of  India.  All 
these  motives  had  been  shaken  of  late ;  the  Government  had 
been  offending  them  by  sending  them  on  over-sea  expeditions 
to  Burmah  and  China.  Some  of  their  old  privileges,  e.g.  extra 
pay  for  service  beyond  the  Sutlej,  had  been  abolished.  The 
tie  of  personal  loyalty  to  their  hierarchical  superiors  had  been 
much  loosened;  the  British  officers  no  longer  spent  their  whole 
life  with  their  regiment,  and  were  often  transferred  from  corps 
to  corps  or  detached  on  civil  employ.  The  comparative 
easiness  of  obtaining  leave  to  England  since  the  Overland 
Route  had  been  invented,  and  steamships  had  brought  India 
within  six  weeks'  voyage  of  London,  was  not  without  its  effect. 
Moreover,  in  1857  the  proportion  of  British  to  native  troops  in 
India  was  abnormally  low ;  many  of  the  regiments  summoned 
to  Europe  for  the  Crimean  war  had  not  been  replaced,  and 


230        ENGLAND  IN  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

what  white  troops  there  were  had  been  mainly  concentrated  in 
the  newly  annexed  Punjaub.  Between  the  Sutlej  and  Calcutta 
there  were,  at  the  moment  of  the  outbreak,  only  six  British 
battalions. 

A  great  mercenary  army  which  has  begun  to  despise  its 
masters,  and  thinks  it  has  a  grievance  against  them,  is  ripe  for 
revolt.  The  Sepoys  had  been  so  much  pampered  and  petted 
by  the  Government,  that  they  thought  that  it  could  not  do 
without  them.  It  only  needed  a  cause  and  a  cry  to  spur 
them  into  open  rebellion. 

The  cause  was  supplied  by  political  intriguers,  largely  drawn 

from    the   ranks  of  those  who  had    suffered   by 

Sepoys—        Dalhousie's  annexations.     The  dependants  of  the 

The  greased  ex-king  of  Oude  were  a  centre  of  discontent  among 
c&rtridsres. 

the  Mohammedans,  and  those  of  the  ex-Peishwa 

among  the  Mahrattas.  The  secret  programme  laid  before 
the  Sepoys  was  the  restoration  of  the  Mogul  emperor — who 
still  lived  as  a  pensioner  at  Delhi — as  the  national  sovereign  of 
India,  and  the  restoration  under  his  suzerainty  of  all  the  lately 
annexed  states.  This  scheme  would  appeal  more  to  Mohamme- 
dans than  Hindoos,  but  the  revival  of  the  Peishwaship  would 
not  be  without  its  effect  among  the  latter.  The  actual 
cry  which  set  the  smouldering  elements  of  rebellion  ablaze 
was  a  foolish  rumour,  to  the  effect  that  the  Government  was 
about  to  attempt  to  force  Christianity  on  its  subjects.  This 
was  to  be  done,  so  it  was  averred,  by  defiling  the  soldiers. 
The  grease  of  pigs  and  of  cattle  was  to  be  smeared  on  the 
cartridges  which  were  being  issued  to  the  troops  for  the  new 
rifle,  with  which  they  were  being  re-armed.  Hindoos  would 
loose  their  caste  by  touching  the  lard  of  the  sacred  cow,  and 
Mohammedans  be  polluted  by  handling  the  fat  of  the  swine. 
All  being  contaminated,  the  "Sircar"  would  invite  them  to 
become  Christians !  This  incredibly  silly  tale  found  imi)licit 
credence  in  many  quarters,  and  seems  to  have  provoked  the 
outbreak  of  the  rebellion  before  its  organizers  were  quite  ready. 


OUTBREAK   OF   THE   MUTINY.  231 

It  would  seem  that  a  general  rising  had  been  planned  for  the 
month  of  May,  but  even  before  that  date  isolated  risings 
occurred.  The  first  at  Barrackpur,  near  Calcutta,  was  easily 
suppressed,  and  the  two  regiments  which  took  part  in  it  were 
disbanded.  The  Government  had  no  idea  that  they  were 
dealing  with  a  mere  corner  of  a  great  conspiracy. 

The  serious  trouble  began  with  the  revolt  of  the  brigade  at 
Meerut,  a  great  cantonment  near  Delhi,  on  May  7,  1857.     The 
mutineers,  after  shooting  many  of  their  officers, 
marched    on    the    ancient    capital,    induced   the  Outbreak  at 
troops  there  to  aid   them,   and   murdered   many  Seizure  of 
scores  of  Europeans.    They  then  went  to  Bahadur  Delhi— 
Shah,  the  aged  Mogul  prince,  and  saluted  him  as  the^Mutiny. 
their  monarch.     He  was  placed  on  the  throne  of 
his  ancestors,  and  hailed  as  Emperor  of  India.     The  news  of 
the  seizure  of  Delhi  by  the  rebels  flew  round  northern  Hin- 
dostan  in  a  moment,  and  was  followed  by  mutinies  in  almost 
every  cantonment  where  a  native  regiment  lay.     In  most  cases 
their  rising  was  accompanied  by  the  murder  of  their  officers 
under  circumstances  of  gross  treachery  and  cruelty.     In  a  few 
weeks  the  whole  of  Oude,  with  Rohilcund  and  the  greater  part 
of  the  North-West  Provinces,  were  in  the  possession  of  the 
insurgents.     The  rising  spread  into  Bahar  at  one  end,  and  into 
the  Central   Provinces  at  the    other.     The    main   centres   of 
revolt  were  Lucknow,  where  a  young  relative  of  the  old  ruler 
of  Oude  was  proclaimed  king,  and  Cawnpore,  which  was  seized 
by  the  would-be  Peishwa  Dhundu  Punt,  the  adopted  son  of 
Bajee  Rao— a  miscreant  better  known  by  the  name  of  the 
Nana   Sahib.      The    English    who    escaped    massacre   sought 
refuge  in  the  few  stations,  such  as  Agra  and  Allahabad,  where 
there  was  a  European  regiment  in  possession. 

The  blow  was  so  sudden  and  unexpected  that  for  a  moment 
the  Government  was  paralyzed  :  the  Punjaub,  where  lay  the 
greater  part  of  the  white  troops,  was  separated  from  Calcutta 
by  four  hundred  miles  of  territory  which  had  passed  to  the 


232         ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 

rebels.  It  was  from  Sir  John  Lawrence  in  the  Punjaub  that  the 
first  signs  of  movement  came.  After  disarming 
faU^f  Delhi.  ^^^  Sepoys  in  his  district,  he  sent  a  small  force 
of  five  thousand  British  troops  against  Delhi. 
They  forced  their  way  to  its  gates,  and  there  established  them- 
selves, in  order  to  attack  a  city  garrisoned  by  twice  their  own 
number  of  regular  troops.  So  began  a  siege  which  lasted  from 
June  8  to  September  20.  Lawrence  pushed  up  to  aid  the 
besiegers  all  the  white  men  he  could  spare,  and  a  quantity 
of  new  Sikh  levies,  raised  mainly  from  our  old  enemies  of  1848. 
They  behaved  admirably,  and  never  for  a  moment  showed  any 
signs  of  disloyalty.  On  September  14  General  Nicholson 
stormed  the  city,  and  after  six  days  of  desperate  street  fighting 
the  rebel  army  broke  up,  and  the  emperor  and  all  his  family 
were  taken  prisoners.  The  aged  Bahadur  Shah  himself  was 
spared,  but  his  sons  and  grandson  were  shot  without  a  trial  by 
Major  Hodson,  the  fierce  cavalry  leader  who  had  followed 
up  and  seized  them. 

Meanwhile,    two    sieges    further    to    the    south    had    been 

engrossing  the  rebels  of  Oude.    At  Cawnpore  General  Wheeler, 

with  four  hundred  fighting  men  and  a  much  larger 

J"^  number  of  women  and  children,  was  beleai^uered 

Cawnpore  .     .  .'  * 

massacre         by  the  Nana  Sahib  in  some  flimsy  entrenchments. 

—Siege  of       Worn   out  by  heat  and    starvation,   the  garrison 
Lucknow.  ■'  . 

yielded  on  terms,  when  they  were  promised  a  free 

passage  by  river  to  Calcutta.      But  the  treacherous  prince  fell 

upon  them  as  they  were  getting  into  their  boats,  and  slew  all 

the   men  in  cold  blood   (June   27).     Two   or   three   hundred 

women  and  children  were  saved  alive  for  a  time,  but  when  he 

heard  that  an  English  force  was  drawing  near  Cawnpore,  the 

infamous  Mahratta  had  the  whole  of  his  unfortunate  captives 

hacked  to  pieces  and  cast  into  a  well  (July  15).     A  siege  with 

a  very  different  result  was  proceeding  at  Lucknow,  where  Sir 

Henry  Lawrence,  with  a  single  British  battalion  and  a  great 

mass  of  English  fugitives,  was  being  attacked  by  the  main  body 


RELIEF  OF  LUCKNOW.  233 

of  the  Oude  rebels.  Lawrence  was  shot  early  in  the  siege,  but 
his  companions  defended  the  extemporized  fortifications  of  the 
Residency  for  three  months  against  some  forty  thousand  rebels, 
till  relief  at  last  came. 

It  was  brought  by  Sir  Henry  Havelock,  who  had  arrived  at 
Calcutta  with  the  troops  returning  from  the  Persian  war,*  and 
was  promptly  sent  up  country  with  a  mere  handful 
of   men,  to   endeavour   to    save   Cawnpore    and  Lucknow. 
Lucknow.     He  arrived  too  late  to  help  Wheeler's 
unhappy  garrison,  but  on  September  25  cut  his  way  through 
to  Lucknow,  and  there  established  himself  in  the  midst  of  the 
rebels,  whom  he  was  not  strong  enough  to  drive  away.     The 
gallant  defenders  of  the  Residency  were  not  finally  relieved  till 
November,  when  Sir  Colin  Campbell,  who  had  been  sent  out 
from  England  with  reinforcements,  came  up  and  escorted  them 
away  from  their  stronghold. 

By  this  time   Delhi  had   fallen,  and  England  was  pouring 

troops  by  tens  of  thousands  into  Calcutta  and  Bombay.     The 

rest  of  the  war  consisted  in  the  gradual  hemming 

in  and  hunting  down  of  the  rebels  by  Sir  Colin  Arrival  of  re- 
^  -'  inforcements 

Campbell's    army.      In  December   he    defeated,  —Battles  of 

outside  Cawnpore,  the  troops  of  Scindia,  who,  in  ^^^^j!^y  ^"^ 
spite  of  their  master's  orders,  had  taken  arms 
and  joined  the  Oude  insurgents.  In  February,  1858,  he 
marched  for  the  second  time  on  Lucknow,  and  stormed  palace 
after  palace,  till,  after  three  weeks  of  hard  fighting,  the  insur- 
gents abandoned  the  place  and  fled  into  Rohilcund  (March 
21).  There  they  were  beaten  again  at  the  battle  of  Bareilly 
(May  7),  and  finally  dispersed  and  fled  to  their  homes.  To 
the  great  grief  of  his  pursuers,  the  infamous  Nana  Sahib  escaped 
the  sword  and  the  rope,  and  got  off  into  the  jungles  of  Nepaul, 
where  he  is  believed  to  have  d^ed  of  malaria  a  few  weeks  latei. 
The  only  corner  where  the  war  now  lingered  was  around 
the  Mahratta  towns  of  Gwalior  and  Jhansi,  where  the  rebelHon 
*  See  p.  141. 


234         ENGLAND   IN    THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

was  headed  by  the  Ranee  of  the  latter  place,  a  cruel  princess, 
who  had  massacred  a  number  of  English  prisoners  to  avenge 
the  annexation  of  her  late  husband's  dominions  in  1854.  She 
fell  in  battle,  armed  and  fighting  like  a  man,  under  the  walls  of 
Gwalior  (June  16,  1858).  This  was  the  last  general  engage- 
ment in  the  war,  but  for  many  months  more  movable  columns 
were  still  hunting  down  the  last  scattered  bands  of  insurgents 
in  Rohilcund  and  the  Central  Provinces. 

Thus  ended  the  dreadful  record  of  the  Indian  Mutiny,  a 
struggle  whose  horrors  moved  the  heart  of  England  far  more 
than  any  other  events  which  have  happened  during  the  last  two 
generations.  Never  have  English  troops  fought  better  nor 
more  ruthlessly ;  they  were  wrought  up  to  frenzy  by  the  trea- 
cherous massacre  of  unarmed  captives  and  women  and  children. 
Hence  it  is  not  surprising  that  they  never  gave  quarter,  blew 
captured  traitors  from  guns,  and  hung  at  sight  any  one  who  was 
convicted  of  having  given  the  least  help  to  the  rebels. 

One  of  the  things  which  had  buoyed  up  the  Sepoys  in  their 

rising  was  a  prophecy  that  the  raj  of  the  East  India  Company 

, was  destined  to  last  only  a  hundred  years,  count- 
Abolition  of      .  1   r  xM  1  r,,,       r 

the  East  mg  onward  from  Plassey  and  1757.     The  forecast 

India  ^y^s  actually  fulfilled,  though  in  a  different  sense 

Company.  ^  ^ 

from    what    the    rebels   had    expected,    for    the 

Company  was  abolished  by  Act  of  Parliament  in  1858,  and  its 
administration  taken  over  by  the  Crown.  Since  1833,  when  its 
constitution  had  been  varied  at  one  of  the  periodical  renewals 
of  its  charter,  it  had  been  forced  to  give  up  its  trading  mono- 
poly and  its  attempts  to  restrict  the  settlement  of  Europeans  in 
India.  In  1853  its  distribution  of  patronage  had  been  cur- 
tailed, and  its  civil  service  thrown  open  to  competition.  At  the 
time  of  its  dissolution,  therefore,  it  had  ceased  to  be  a  mainly 
mercantile  concern,  and  was  almost  wholly  occupied  in  ad- 
ministration. There  was  no  reason  why  such  work  should  not 
be  under  the  immediate  control  of  the  Crown,  and  in  1858  the 
whole  machinery  of  government  was  taken  over   and  placed 


THE   SECOND   AFGHAN   WAR.  235 

under  a  "  Secretary  of  State  for  India  "  and  the  governor-general, 
whose  name  was  now  changed  to  that  of  viceroy.  The  Euro- 
pean troops  of  the  old  Company's  army  became  the  loist  to 
the  109th  regiments  of  the  British  establishment,  and  a  new 
native  army  was  organized  to  replace  that  which  had  ended  so 
disgracefully  in  the  mutiny. 

From  1858  to  1878  the  history  of  India  was  comparatively 
uneventful.  A  policy  of  "  masterly  inactivity  "  was  pursued  as 
regards  the  external  neighbours  of  the  empire,  and  no  fighting 
was  on  foot,  except  for  the  purpose  of  repelling  the  intermittent 
raids  of  the  wild  tribes  of  the  north-west  frontier  and  the  savages 
of  Bhootan.  The  time  was  one  of  quiet  internal  development, 
and  agricultural  improvements,  railways,  canals,  and  the  pre- 
vention of  famines  were  the  main  topics  that  engrossed  the 
attention  of  successive  viceroys. 

This  period  came  to  an  end  with  the  accession  to  power  of 
Lord  Lytton   (1876-80),  a  pupil  of  Lord  Beaconsfield,  and  a 
strong  Imperialist.     His  viceroyalty  opened  with 
the    proclamation    of  the  Queen  as    Empress  of  proclaims  the 
India  in  a  great  durbar  held  at  Delhi  on  January  Queen 
I,  1877,  one  of  the  first  developments  of  the  "  New  ^"Jf/^^^  °^ 
Imperialism."      But  the  most  important  event  of 
the  time  was  the  second  Afghan  war   (1878-80).      It  was  a 
direct   consequence    of   the    political    conflict    of 
England  and  Russia  at  Constantinople  after  the  A^ghan^war 
Turkish    war     of     1877-78.      While    hostilities 
between     the    two     powers    seemed     probable,    a     Russian 
embassy    went    to    Cabul    and    enlisted     the    Ameer    Shere 
Ali  as  a  confederate  of  the  Czar.     Lord  Lytton,  resolved  to 
stop  this  new  development,  declared  war  on  the  Afghan  ruler, 
and  sent  three  expeditions  across  the  frontier  into  the  Ameer's 
dominions.       Candahar     having     fallen,    and    Sir    Frederick 
Roberts  having  stormed  the  Peiwar-Kotal  pass  and  advanced 
close  to  Cabul,  the  Ameer  fled  towards  Russian  territory,  and 
died  soon  after.     His  son  and  successor,  Yakub  Khan,  at  once 


235        ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

asked  for  peace,  gave  guarantees,  and  received  a  British  envoy 

as  a  permanent  resident  in  his  capital.     But  this  weak  prince 

was  totally  unable  to  control  his  wild  subjects,  who  rose  in 

arms,   murdered  the  envoy.  Sir  Louis  Cavagnari,  and  all  his 

escort,  and  proclaimed  the  "  holy   war "   (Jehad)  against  the 

British  infidels.     Lord  Lytton  was  obliged  to  launch  his  armies 

for  a  second  time  against  Afghanistan.    Roberts  again  marched 

on  Cabul,  and  occupied  it  after  the  battle  of  Charasia,  but  was 

soon  beset  by  a  vast  horde  of  insurgents  who  beleaguered  him 

in  his  camp.     He  drove  them  off,  however,  and  was  completely 

triumphant  long  before  reinforcements  reached  him  from  India. 

But  matters  went  worse  in  the  south,  where  the  pretender 

Eyub  Khan  defeated  at   Maiwand  the  garrison  of  Candahar, 

and  formed  the  siefre  of  that  city.     It  was  saved, 
Battle  of  ,         .  .,   ^.  ,       ,        ,  ^         .  ,  ,       ' 

Maiwand when  m  very  evil  plight,  by  the  rapid  march  of 

Relief  of  Roberts   from    Cabul :    in    twenty-three   days   he 

Candahar.  ,     ,  ,       i         ,  •  i 

crossed    the    mountainous    lands    which   separate 

northern  and  southern  Afghanistan  without  the  loss  of  a  man. 
Falling  on  the  besiegers,  he  scattered  them  at  the  battle  ot 
Candahar  (September  i,  1880),  and  practically  finished  the  war 
at  a  single  blow.  Lord  Lytton  would  have  liked  to  annex 
much  of  the  conquered  territory,  but  Mr.  Gladstone  was  now  in 
power  at  home,  and  the  warlike  viceroy  was  recalled.  The 
Liberal  Government  withdrew  our  troops,  after  recognizing  as 
ameer  Abdur  Rahman,  a  nephew  of  the  late  ruler,  Shere  Ali. 
He  has,  on  the  whole,  proved  a  good  neighbour  to  India,  and 
kept  faithfiilly  the  pledges  which  he  made  in  1880. 

The  next  important  movement  in  our  Indian  Empire  was  on 
the  flank  furthest  from  Afghanistan.  The  kings  of  Burmah  had 
p-j^^j  always  been  vexatious  neighbours,  and   in   1885 

annexation  we  were  drawn  into  war  with  Theebaw,  a  despot 
of  Burmah.  ^^^o  had  massacred  all  his  relatives  and  entered 
into  intrigues  with  France.  His  worthless  army  was  scattered 
with  ease,  and  his  whole  dominion  annexed ;  but  the  sup- 
pression of  the  brigandage  (dacoity)  which  had  always  prevailed 


THE   RUSSIAN   DANGER.  237 

in  Burmah  proved  a  much  harder  business  than  the  dethrone- 
ment of  the  king,  and  was  not  finished  for  several  years,  during 
which  many  scores  of  expeditions  had  to  be  sent  out  against 
the  bandits  (1885-89). 

Since  then  the  troubles  in  India  have  nearly  all  been  upon 
the  north-western  frontier,  where  the  slow  approach  of  Russia 
has  always  to  be  watched  with  a  jealous  eye.  She  has  long 
since  put  an  end  to  the  difficulties  of  distance,  which  made 
any  designs  against  our  territories  impossible  in  the  earlier 
part  of  the  century.  The  khanate  of  Bokhara  Boundary 
was  subdued  in  1868,  that  of  Khiva  in  1873,  the  disputes  with 
independent  Turkomans  of  Merv  in  1884,  so  that  ^"ssia. 
the  Russian  boundaries  march  with  those  of  Afghanistan.  Two 
serious  frontier  disputes  between  the  Ameer  Abdur  Rahman 
and  the  governors  of  Turkestan  (1885  and  1895)  ended  in 
armed  collisions,  and  might  have  led  to  war  between  England 
and  Russia  if  we  had  not  behaved  with  studied  moderation. 
North  and  east  of  Afghanistan,  on  the  barren  waste  of  the 
Pamirs,  the  Russian  posts  are  in  actual  touch  with  tribes 
subject  to  direct  British  rule. 

It  was  our  determination  that  there  should  be  no  further 
encroachment  in  this  quarter  which  led  to  the  conquest  of  the 
mountainous  Hunza  and  Nagar  districts  in  1893,  yj^^  Hunza 
and  to   the   occupation   of   Chitral.     The   prince  and  Chitral 
whom   we    placed    on   the   throne    of    the    last-  expeditions, 
named    state   was   murdered   by    his   kinsmen,  who   raised   a 
rebellion   against   the    British    power.       This    led    to  the   ad- 
mirably  planned    Chitral    expedition    of    1895,    and    to    the 
planting  of  considerable  garrisons  in  that  remote  and  high- 
lying  district. 

It  was  probably  the  sight  of  this  extension  of  our  influence 
into  regions  where  it  had  been  little  known  that  set  many  of 
the  tribes  of  the  north-western  frontier  in  a  ferment  in  1897. 
One  after  another  the  hordes  along  the  Afghan  border  took 
arms,  and  committed  outrages  within  our  boundaries.     To  put 


238        ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

them  down,  an  army  was  drawn  together  larger  than  any  that 
British  India  had  seen  since  the  great  Mutiny. 
T  \.^-^^  At  one  time  60,000  men  were  in  the  field  at  once 
on  the  north-  against  the  Afridis  and  their  neighbours.  After 
T^t'  r  expeditions  had  forced  their  way  into  the  remotest 

valleys  of  their  rugged  land,  the  tribes  asked  for 
peace  (1898);  but  even  now  the  frontier  has  not  completely 
settled  down,  nor  has  a  full  military  scheme  for  the  occupation 
of  the  passes  been  worked  out. 

In  comparison  with  these  troubles  on  the  north-west  frontier, 
those  which  have  happened  of  late  on  the  other  flank  of  our 
Disputes  Indian  Empire  appear  insignificant.  They  date 
with  France  from  the  occupation  of  Tonquin  by  France  in 
as  to  biam.      ^gg^  .  ^[j^^q  ^^^^  ^^^^^  power  has  made  constant 

endeavours  to  extend  itself  across  the  Indo-Chinese  peninsula, 

and  to  occupy  Siam  and  the  Shan  States  north  of  it.     But  in 

1896  a  treaty  was   concluded,   neutralizing  what   remains  of 

Siam,  and   dividing  the  rest  of  the   disputed   regions  into  a 

British  and  French  sphere  of  influence  :  since  then  there  seems 

to  have  been  a  cessation  of  friction  in  this  quarter. 

The    political    future    of   India  still    remains    the   greatest 

problem  which  lies  before  British  statesmen.    We  have  reduced 

the  country  to  a  state  of  unity  and  sood  organi- 
Results  of  ,  .  ,        \    r  ,        , 

British  rule     zation,  such  as  it  never  knew  before,  under  the 

—Material  Moguls  or  any  other  power.  We  have  covered 
it  with  railways  and  canals,  broken  up  millions  of 
acres  of  jungle,  and  irrigated  hundreds  of  miles  of  desert.  The 
famines  which  a  century  ago  used  to  march  unhindered  over 
the  land,  and  to  sweep  away  tens  of  millions  of  victims,  are 
now  fought  from  their  first  appearance,  and  lead  to  compara- 
tively small  loss  of  life,  though  in  remote  districts  much 
misery  must  still  prevail.  In  1897,  during  the  last  great 
dearth,  as  many  as  four  and  a  half  million  persons  were  receiv- 
ing government  relief  at  the  same"  time.  We  have  given 
equal  laws  and  justice  to  all ;  we  have  abolished  evil  customs 


THE   FUTURE   OF   INDIA.  239 

of  immemorial  antiquity,  such  as  suttee  and  thuggism ;  we  are 
doing  our  best  to  teach  our  subjects  self-government,  by  giving 
J;he  cities  native  municipalities  and  trying  to  interest  our  vassal 
princes  in  public  works,  sanitary  and  educational  reform,  and 
such-like  Western  ideas. 

On    the   material    side,  the    work   accomplished   has   been 
enormous  and   uniformly  beneficial.      In    other   respects,  the 
results  of  our  presence  in  India  have  not  always 
been  so  encouraging  :  it  is  hard  to  root  out  the  Attitude  of 
ancient  enmities  of  creed  and  race,  and  serious  races -The 
riots   show  from   time   to   time  that   the    British  problem  of 
bayonet  is  still  needed  to  keep  the  peace.     The  ment 
cheap  education  which  we  have  lavished  upon  our 
subjects  has  not  always  reached  the  directing  classes,  but  has 
created  a  half-educated  literary  proletariate,  whose  energy  too 
often  finds  vent  in  silly  and   seditious  journalism.     On   the 
other  hand,  the  old  governing  classes  often  complain  that  there 
is  no  career  for  them  under  our   regime.      Though  financial 
legislation  is  framed  to   press   as   lightly  as   possible   on  the 
poverty-stricken  masses,  yet  our  rule  cannot  be  called  cheap 
according  to   Eastern  ideas.     But  considering  the   difficulties 
with  which  we  have  to  cope,  the  situation  must  be  considered 
hopeful  rather  than  the  reverse.     If  the  results  of  our  energy  in 
some  directions  have  been  disappointing,  it  is  possible  to  point 
to  plenty  of  cases  where  the  influence  of  Western  ideas  on 
natives  of  all  classes,  from  the  highest  downwards,  have  been 
admirable.     But  the  problem  of  what  Great  Britain  must  do 
when  the  greater  part  of  the  leading  classes  have  come  under 
such  influences  and  ask  for  further  rights  of  self-government,  is 
one  which  will  not  have  to  be  settled  by  the  present  generation. 
"  Indian  National  Congresses,"  and  such-like  meetings,  to-day 
represent  little  or  nothing  :  what  they  may  represent  fifty  years 
hence,  no  man  can  say — but  the  future  must  take  care  for 
itself. 

Passing  from  India  eastward  in  our  survey  of  the  empire 


240        ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

we  note  that,  in   1815,  we  had  hardly  any  hold  on  the  Indo- 
Chinese  and  Malay  lands,  merely  owning  a  few 
The  Straits  ,     ,      ,  •        o  ,        •  f      ,       r 

Settlements     scattered    harbours     in     Sumatra,    the    island    oL 

—Growth  of  Penang,  and  a  small  strip  of  coast  in  the  Malay 
peninsula,  called  "  Province  Wellesley,"  from  the 
great  Governor-General,  who  acquired  it  in  1800.  But,  in 
1824,  we  exchanged  Bantam  and  our  other  ports  in  Sumatra 
with  the  Dutch  for  the  far  more  eligible  colony  of  Malacca, 
dominating  the  straits  through  which  all  trade  passes  from 
India  to  China  and  Japan.  To  this  was  added  the  island 
of  Singapore,  ceded  by  a  Malay  rajah  in  the  same  year  1824. 
The  moment  that  this  possession  came  into  our  hands  it 
began  to  develop  in  the  most  extraordinary  way ;  Singapore, 
which,  when  we  received  it,  was  a  mere  island  of  jungle, 
is  now  a  town  of  200,000  souls,  and  one  of  the  greatest 
ports  of  the  world.  It  has  become  a  halfway  house,  not 
only  for  commerce  passing  from  China  eastward  or  westward, 
but  also  for  all  the  trade  of  Australia  and  the  Dutch  East 
Indies. 

A  similar  greatness  has  come  to  Hong-Kong,  which  we 
seized  in  1842  after  the  first  Chinese  war;  for  fifty  years 
it  was  the  only  spot  in  the  further  East  under 
Growth  of  ^  civilized  European  Government,  and,  "  trade 
following  the  flag,"  became  the  emporium  of 
the  greater  part  of  the  Chinese  empire.  The  opening  of  other 
ports  on  the  mainland,  after  the  second  Chinese  war,  took 
away  its  practical  monopoly,  but  has  had  no  effect  whatever 
in  diminishing  the  bulk  of  trade  which  passes  through  its 
harbour.  The  island-city  has  now  250,000  inhabitants,  and 
is  growing  across  the  water  on  to  the  mainland,  where  further 
concessions  of  land  have  just  been  granted  by  the  Chinese 
The  Dolicv  Government.  The  eftect  of  the  recent  seizure 
of  the  "open  of  ports  further  to  the  north  by  Germany  and 
door.  Russia,  and  of  our  own  "  lease  "  of  Wei-Hei-Wai 

(1898),  has  still  to  be  worked  out.     The  only  thing  of  which 


EARLY   HISTORY   OF   AUSTRALIA.  241 

we  can  be  certain  is  that  the  parcelling  out  of  the  Chinese 

coast  into  "  spheres  of  influence,"    by  powers  which  believe 

in  strict  protection,  cannot  be  favourable  to  our  own  trade ; 

and  that  the  more  that  the  policy  of  the  "  open  door  "  for  all 

commerce   in  the  Celestial   empire  is   maintained,  the  better 

will   it   be   for   Great    Britain.     Monopoly  in  a  part  will  not 

compensate  us   for   losing  the   power  of  competition   in   the 

whole. 

Australia  was  in   1800  still  very  imperfectly  known,  though, 

as   we   have   already  had   occasion    to   mention,    an    English 

convict   settlement    had    been   planted   at    Port  ^    , 

Jackson    some    twelve   years   before.     But    even  development 

down  to   1802  its  shape  was  so  little  known  that  of  Australia. 

the   great   island   of  Tasmania    was    supposed    to    form    part 

of    it.      As    long    as     the    region    was    nothing   more    than 

a  place  of  punishment  for  those   "  who  left  their  country  for 

their   country's   good,"  it  was   not   likely  to  develop  fast  or 

happily.     But,  after   the    peace    of  Vienna,  the  capacities  of 

the  vast  plains  of  Eastern  Australia  began  to  be  known ;  no 

region  so  well  suited  for   pastoral    enterprises  on  the  largest 

scale   exists   in  all   the  world.     Free    settlers   provided   with 

some  little  capital  began  to  drift  in,  and  to  plant  their  stations 

on  the  broad  grassy  upland  of  New  South  Wales,  where  sheep 

and   cattle    soon    began    to    multiply  at   an    astounding  rate. 

But     for    a     whole     generation     the     unsavoury 

■  .        -,  .  .         ,  1       .  Gradual 

convict     element     contmued     to     predommate,  abolition  of 

and  to  give  the  continent  a  bad  name.     Fortu-  the  convict 

nately  the  ameliorations  of  the  English  criminal 

law    between     1820     and     1840,    began     to     diminish    the 

depth   of  the   stream    of  ruffianism   which   was   poured    into 

Australia   year   by  year,  while   the    free  colonists  grew  more 

numerous  as  the  opening  for   the  sheep  farmer  began  to  be 

realized.       The     feeling     among     them     as    to    the    further 

importation    of  convicts   grew    so    strong,    that    the    British 

Government   diverted    the    main    stream    from    New   South 

R 


242        ENGLAND    IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

Wales  (1840),  to  newer  penal  settlements  in  Tasmania  and 
Western  Australia.  The  system  was  not,  however,  finally- 
abandoned  in  Tasmania  till  1853,  and  in  Western  Australia 
till  1864,  though  in  the  last  years  of  its  existence  the  annual 
export  of  convicts  had  been  very  small. 

Down  to  the  middle  of  the  century  it  seemed  likely  that 
Australia    would    never    develop    into     anything    more     than 

a  thinly  populated  pastoral  country,  occupied 
eold-fielX.      ^y  ^  community  of  "  squatters,"  each  owning  a 

vast  run  of  many  thousand  acres,  and  employing 
a  few  shepherds  and  cattle-men  to  tend  his  live  stock.  Wool, 
tallow,  and  hides,  with  a  certain  amount  of  timber,  were 
practically  the  sole  exports  of  the  continent.  But  all  was 
changed  in  1848-51  by  the  discovery  in  Port  Phillip,  the 
southern  region  of  New  South  Wales,  of  enormous  deposits 
of  alluvial  gold,  richer  than  anything  known  in  the  old  world, 
and  vying  in  wealth  with  those  of  California.  There  was 
of  course  an  instant  rush  to  the  new  gold-field,  and  the 
population  of  the  Port  Phillip  district  went  up  so  rapidly  that 
it  was  cut  off  from  the  parent  colony,  and  formed  into  a 
separate  community,  under  the  name  of  Victoria,  in  185 1.  It 
has  ever  since  remained  one  of  the  chief  gold-producing 
centres  of  the  world,  and  more  than  ;^2 5 0,000,000  worth  of 
the  precious  metal  has  been  extracted  from  its  mines.  More 
than  ^4,000,000  worth  a  year  is  still  exported,  though  the 
easy  surface  deposits  have  long  been  exhausted,  and  all 
the  metal  has  to  be  crushed  by  machinery  from  the  solid 
quartz  reef.  Some  time  after  the  Victorian  gold-field  was 
developed,  similar  fields  of  smaller  extent  and  lesser  richness 
were  found  to  exist  in  other  parts  of  the  continent.  New 
South  Wales,  and  the  younger  colony  of  Queensland  (created 
in  1859),  have  both  an  important  output,  and  quite  lately 
(1886),  similar  deposits  have  been  discovered  in  Western 
Australia,  which  was  till  that  date  the  most  belated  and 
thinly  peopled  of  the  colonies  of  Australia. 


AUSTRALIAN   POLITICS.  243 

The  gold  discoveries  led  to  a  great  increase  of  the  town-dwell- 
ing as  opposed  to  the  pastoral  population  of  the  colonies.    They 

also  led  to  a  great  influx  of  population  over  and  _ 

,,  J    •       1  ...       Growth  of 

above   that   actually  engaged   in  the   minuig  ui-  towns— The 

dustry.     The  growth  of  a  class  of  small  farmers  farmers  and 
led  to  a  long-protracted   struggle  between  them 
and  the  "  squatters "  who  had  previously  had  a  monopoly  of 
the  land.     The  latter  held  their  enormous  pasture-runs  by  long 
leases  from  the  Crown,  which  they  desired  to  render  perpetual. 
Their  opponents  wished  to  cut  up  these  vast  estates,  in  order 
that  arable  farms  might  be  carved  out  of  such  parts  of  them  as 
are  suited  to  the  plough.     Since  the  introduction  of  representa- 
tive government  in  Australia,  in  1850-51,  the  tendency  has, 
of  course,  been  to  place  power  in  the  hands  of  the  majority, 
and  to  deprive  the  squatters  of  their  ancient  ascendency.     But 
there   are   many   parts   of    the   continent   where 
pasturage    must   always   be   predominant ;    great  question  °"^ 
tracts  of  the  interior  are  so  ill  provided  with  water 
that  they  must  always  be  unfitted  for  arable  cultivation.     In 
the  northern  part  of  the  continent,  including  the  greater  part 
of  the  colony  of  Queensland,  the  climate  is  so  hot  that  it  is 
unsuited  for  field  work  by  Europeans.     Such  regions  naturally 
become  sugar  or  rice  plantations,  which  have  to  be  worked  by 
the  imported  labour  of  Chinese  or  "  Kanakas  "  (natives  of  the 
South  Sea  Islands).     But  the  Australian  proletariate  show  great 
jealousy  of  such  foreign  labour,  and  would  apparently  prefer 
that  the  sub-tropical    parts   of  the  continent   should   be   un- 
developed, rather  than  that  a  large  coloured  population  should 
grow   up   in   them.      Two   of  the   characteristic 
features  of  extreme  democracy  in  a  new  country  leSlSon^ 
have   been   very   well   marked   in   some   of   the 
Australian  colonies, — the  tendency  towards  strict  forms  of  pro- 
tection in  commerce,  and  the  desire  to  thrust  all  duties  and 
responsibilities  on  the  Government  till  State  socialism  is  almost 
in  viev/.     Legislation  to  prevent  the   accumulation   of  large 


244        ENGLAND    IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

properties,  by  heavy  progressive  taxation,  has  also  been  heard 
of.  Victoria  has  ahvays  been  in  the  van  in  such  democratic 
ideas,  while  New  South  Wales  has  shown  itself  more  cautious. 

At  present  the  main  topic  in  the  whole  group  of  Australian 
colonies  is  the  dispute  about  Federation ;  all  the  six  colonies 
The  Question  "^^^  existing*  are  in  theory  favourable  to  it, 
of  Federa-  but  sectional  interests,  of  course,  exist  to  make 
^^°"'  the  carrying  out   of  the    scheme   difficult.     The 

jealousy  between  the  two  capital  cities  of  New  South  Wales 
and  Victoria — Sydney  and  Melbourne — necessitates  the  selec- 
tion of  some  secondary  town  as  the  centre  of  federal  govern- 
ment. There  is  also  enough  difference  in  the  domestic  policy 
of  several  of  the  colonies  to  make  an  agreement  difficult,  but 
that  it  will  be  ere  long  arrived  at  cannot  be  doubted,  and  is  in 
every  way  desirable.  When  accomplished,  it  will  be  a  step 
towards  the  solution  of  the  larger  problem  of  Imperial  Federa- 
tion. Australia  has  shown  no  indisposition  to  take  her  part  in 
the  defence  of  the  empire ;  the  colonies  already  maintain  in 
common  a  small  navy  known  as  the  "  Auxiliary  Squadron," 
and  in  1885  New  South  Wales  contributed  a  military  contingent 
to  one  of  the  Soudan  expeditions. 

To  the  east  of  Australia  lies  the  colony  of  New  Zealand, 
consisting  of  two  large  and  one  small  island  placed  far  out  in 

-T  the  Pacific,  some  twelve  hundred  miles  from  the 

New  . 

Zealand—  nearest  point  of  New  South  Wales.  Colonization 
The  Maoris,  j^^j.^  ^j^jy  began  in  the  reign  of  Victoria,  the  first 
emigrants  arriving  in  1839.  The  history  of  New  Zealand  has 
been  very  different  from  that  of  the  Australian  continent, 
owing  to  the  existence  of  a  large  and  energetic  native  popula- 
tion. The  aborigines  of  Australia,  a  few  thousands  scattered 
over  a  vast  continent,  were  among  the  lowest  and  most 
barbarous  of  mankind.     The  Maori  tribes  of  New  Zealand,  on 

New  South  Wales  (dating  from  1788)  originally  incliulcd  all  the 
Australian  colonies.  Out  of  it  vveie  cut  Tasmania  in  1825,  West  Australia 
in  1829,  South  Australia  in  183O,  X'ictoria  in  1851,  and  (.Queensland  in  1859. 


NEW   ZEALAND.  245 

the  other  hand,  were  a  fierce  and  intelligent  race,  given  to  the 
horrid  practice  of  cannibalism,  but  in  other  respects  by  no 
means  an  unpromising  people.  They  were  ready  and  able  to 
defend  themselves,  when  they  considered  their  rights  had  been 
infringed,  and  since  the  first  settlement  there  have  been  three 
wars  (1843-47,  1863-64,  1869-70),  in  which  the  Maoris  dis- 
played great  courage,  and  considerable  skill  in  fortification. 
Regular  troops  in  large  force  had  to  be  employed  to  evict 
them  from  their  stockaded  "  PahsT  Of  late  years  a  better 
modus  Vivendi  has  been  found,  and  they  seem  contented  with 
their  large  reservations  of  land,  their  subsidies  from  Govern- 
ment, and  the  four  seats  which  have  been  given  them  in  the 
New  Zealand  Parliament. 

The  islands  were,  at  their  first  colonization,  organized  as  six 
provinces,  each  with  a  separate  government,  and  were  not 
united  into  a  thoroughly  centralized  union  till  1875.  Their 
general  character  differs  from  that  of  Australia,  as  they  are  far 
more  broken  up  by  mountains,  better  watered,  and  much  more 
temperate  in  climate  :  in  the  Southern  island  snow  not  un- 
frequently  falls.  There  are  large  pastoral  districts  and  grassy 
plains,  which  supply  the  frozen  meat  now  so  common  in 
English  markets,  but  also  considerable  mining  regions  and 
large  forest  tracts.  New  Zealand  was  never  dominated  by 
the  "  squatter  "  aristocracy  which  once  ruled  Australia,  but  has 
always  been  in  the  hands  of  the  smaller  farmers.  It  is  in 
sentiment  the  most  democratic  of  all  the  Australasian  colonies, 
and  has  gone  further  even  than  Victoria  on  the  road  towards 
placing  all  social  enterprise,  industry,  and  commerce  under 
State  control. 

In  the  Western  Pacific  Great  Britain  was,  for  the  first  three 
quarters  of  the  century,  content  to  possess  the  larger  part  of 
the  trade  of  the  numerous  groups  of  islands,  France  and  the 
United  States  having  much  smaller  interests.  But  the  French 
annexations  in  Tahiti  and  New  Caledonia,  and  the  later 
appearance  of  the  Germans  in  New  Guinea,  led  to  our  setting 


246        ENGLAND  IN  THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 

our  mark  on  a  good  many  of  these  coral  archipelagos.     The 

Fiji  Isles  was  our  first  annexation  (1874);  Southern 
Bridsh  ^^^  Guinea  was  annexed  in  1884,  to  cover  the 

possessions     northern    flank    of   Australia.       At    various    later 
P     fi  ^^^^  ^^^  Cook,  Solomon,  Ellice,  and  Santa  Cruz 

groups  have  been  taken  over.  A  complete  list 
of  our  possessions  in  this  quarter  would  show  many  other 
unfamiliar  names  ;  none  of  them  are  of  any  great  size  or  any 
high  importance.  The  main  reason  of  their  occupation  has 
always  been  the  activity  of  our  encroaching  neighbours,  and  not 
our  own  desire  for  more  coral  reefs  and  atolls.  It  will  be 
curious  to  note  the  ultimate  fate  of  Samoa,  where  British, 
American,  and  German  interests  are  all  now  involved,  and  are 
very  difficult  to  reconcile. 

Our  North  American  colonies  have  a  very  different  history 
from  those  of  Australasia.     In  that  continent  no  annexations 

have  been  made  nor  frontiers  moved  since  181 5, 
Amerkan^  though  there  has  been  trouble  with  the  United 
colonies—  States  on  three  separate  occasions  as  to  the  exact 
auest?o^n^°"    interpretation  of  old  boundaries,  where  definitions 

were  placed  on  paper  before  exact  geographical 
knowledge  was  available.  The  most  important  of  them  was 
the  "  Oregon  question  "  of  1846,  when  the  deUmitation  of  the 
English  and  American  possessions  on  the  Pacific  coast  was 
carried  out,  by  the  simple  expedient  of  drawing  a  line  along  the 
forty-ninth  degree  of  latitude,  from  the  Lake  of  the  Woods  to 
the  Pacific.  All  natural  boundaries  were  thus  overruled  in  the 
most  arbitrary  way,  but  a  fair  compromise  was  on  the  whole 
obtained. 

The  internal  history  of  these  colonies  has  been  far  more 
interesting  than  that  of  most  of  our  possessions.  In  1815 
State  of  the  Canada  had  just  escaped  the  imminent  danger  of 
colonies  in  being  overrun  by  the  armies  of  the  United  States. 
1815.  rj.^^^  splendid  valour  and  loyalty  of  her  militia  had 

aided  the  small  British  garrison  to  fling  back  three  invasions, 


HISTORY   OF   CANADA.  247 

and  the  peace  of  Ghent  had  restored  the  condition  of  affairs 
which  had  prevailed  before  the  war.  Our  possessions  consisted 
of  six  separate  colonies,  each  administered  as  a  separate  unit — 
Upper  and  Lower  Canada,  Newfoundland,  Nova  Scotia,  New 
Brunswick,  and  Prince  Edward  Island,  as  well  as  of  the  vast 
and  desolate  Northern  and  North-Western  territories  extending 
to  the  Pacific,  which  were  then  in  the  hands  of  the  Hudson's 
Bay  Company.  Lower  Canada,  an  entirely  French-speaking 
and  Catholic  province,  the  remains  of  the  old  French  colony 
of  "  New  France  "  was  still  by  far  the  most  important  member 
of  the  group.  The  other  settlements,  the  base  of  whose 
population  was  composed  of  the  exiled  loyalists  who  left  the 
United  States  in  1783  to  seek  new  homes,  were  still  in  their 
infancy;  in  Upper  Canada  the  inhabited  zone  extended  no 
further  west  than  Kingston  and  Toronto.  Each  province  was 
governed  by  a  ministry  ("  Executive  Council "),  and  a  Legis- 
lative Council  of  Crown  nominees,  with  a  Representative 
Assembly  elected  by  the  people. 

As  the  colonies  developed,  friction  began  to  grow  up  between 
the  non-representative  ministry  and  Upper  House  on  the  one 

side,  and   the   elective   assembly   on   the    other.  ^ 

,  ,,         .  ,     1         ,  Constitu- 

The  people   naturally    wished  to  have  a  greater  tional  friction 

control  over  the  executive  than  had  been  granted  — Papineau's 

,  .   ,  ,    rebellion, 

in    a   constitution    drawn    up   in    the   eighteenth 

century  before   the   growth  of  free  colonies  was  understood. 

The  trouble  was  worst  in   Lower   Canada,  where   the  barrier 

of    language   and   national    sentiment    existed    between    the 

Government    and    the    French    population    of   the    province. 

Led    on   by    Papineau   and    other    demagogues,    the    French 

Canadians   burst   out   into   open   rebellion    in    1836-37.     But 

they  met  no  assistance  from  the  English  colonists,  and  were 

suppressed  without  much  difficulty  by  the  troops  and  loyalist 

volunteers.     Their  numerous  sympathizers  in  the  United  States 

were  disappointed  to  see  the  rising  collapse,  and  the  republican 

propaganda  disappear. 


248        ENGLAND  IN   THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY. 

The  Home  Government,  however,  was  wise  enough  to  see 
that  the  rebelHon  in  Lower  Canada  had  a  real  grievance  beneath 
Lord  ^^'  ^"^  ^^^^  ^^^  Lord  Durham  to  America,  in  1838, 

Durham's        to  report  on  the  advisabiUty  of  changes   in   the 
re  orms.  ^^^.^  ^^  administration.     In  accordance  with  his 

advice,  the  whole  constitution  was  recast  in  1840.  The  two 
provinces  of  Lower  and  Upper  Canada  were  united,  so  as  to 
deprive  the  discontented  French  party  of  their  separate 
political  existence.  A  single  parliament  was  instituted  for  their 
governance,  consisting  of  a  small  upper  house,  or  "  Legislative 
Council,"  of  life  members,  and  a  larger  lower  house  chosen 
every  four  years  by  the  electors.  The  lower  house  obtained  a 
practical  control  over  taxation  and  the  choice  of  ministers 
which  it  had  not  previously  possessed.  Similar  modifications 
were  carried  out  in  Nova  Scotia  and  New  Brunswick,  which 
provinces  Lord  Durham  had  wished  to  incorporate  with 
Canada,  but  this  scheme  was  only  accomplished  a  quarter  of 
a  century  after  his  death. 

Since  the  reforms  of  1840,  there  has  been  absolutely  no 
constitutional  trouble  of  any  importance  in  Canada  or  the 
small  sister-colonies.  The  only  military  incidents  that  they 
have  seen  were  the  repulse  of  the  Fenian  invasions  of  1866 
and  1867,*  and  the  suppression  of  the  rebellions  of  the  Indian 
half-breeds  of  the  North-West  Territory  in  1870  and  1884.  Both 
operations  were  accomplished  entirely  by  the  colonial  militia. 
The  advance  of  all  the  North  American  colonies  has  been 
steady  and  increasing  ;  wealth  has  been  found  in  the  enormous 
forests  of  the  north  and  the  rich  prairie  land  of  the  west.  The 
limit  of  population  has  been  moving  steadily  towards  the  Pacific, 
on  whose  shores  two  new  settlements,  Vancouver  Island  and 
British  Columbia,  were  incorporated  in  1858  ;  while  in  the  older 
lands.  Upper  Canada,  the  English-speaking  province  of  Ontario, 
has  quite  superseded  Lower  Canada,  the  French-speaking 
province  of  Quebec,  as  the  premier  colony, 
♦  See  p.  160. 


THE   "DOMINION   OF   CANADA."  249 

The  progress  of  British  North  America  was  greatly  assisted 
by  the  federation  of  the  colonies,  carried  out  between  1867  and 
1873.  The  two  Canadas,  New  Brunswick,  and  ^, 
Nova  Scotia  formed  themselves  into  the  new  "Dominion" 
"  Dominion  of  Canada  "  in  the  first-named  year ;  °  ^a^a  a. 
the  North" Western  Territory,  once  the  property  of  the  Hudson's 
Bay  Company,  joined  them  in  1870,  British  Columbia  in  187 1, 
and  Prince  Edward  Island  in  1873.  The  remote  fishing  colony 
of  Newfoundland  has  preferred  not  to  cast  in  its  lot  with  the 
rest,  though  in  its  dealings  with  its  aggressive  French  neigh- 
bours *  it  would  be  greatly  helped  by  being  able  to  speak  with 
the  same  voice  as  its  greater  sisters.  The  "  Dominion  "  is 
now  a  federal  government,  with  a  governor-general,  a  Senate 
appointed  for  life,  and  a  House  of  Representatives.  The 
individual  provinces  still  retain  for  local  purposes  their 
provincial  assemblies,  and  enjoy  complete  home  rule  under 
the  central  government. 

Since  the  federation,  the  most  important  landmark  in  the 
history  of  the   colonies   is   undoubtedly  the  building  of  the 
Canadian    Pacific    Railway    between    1881    and 
1885.     Since  it  was  finished,  the  development  of  Canadian- 
Manitoba  and  the   other  regions  of  the  "  Great  Pacific 
Lone   Land"   has  been  very  rapid.     Nine   new 
provinces  now  exist  in  this  once  uninhabited  region,  with  a 
rapidly  growing  population  of  over  300,000  souls.     They  are 
mainly   devoted   to   ranching    and    corn-growing,    unlike   the 
districts  further  east,  where  the  lumber  trade  is  still  the  great 
industry.     The  Canadian  Pacific  has  an  imperial  as  well  as  a 
colonial  importance,  since  it  provides  a  quick  route  to   the 
extreme  east,  passing  entirely  through  British  territory.     About 
1 1 00  miles  is  saved  in  passing  from   Liverpool  to  Japan  or 
Northern    China,    if    the   route   by    Halifax,    Montreal,    and 
Vancouver  is  taken  rather  than  that  by  the  Suez  Canal  and 
Singapore. 

•  See  p.  219. 


250        ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

Very  different  from  the  fate  of  Canada  has  been  that  of  our 

other  great  group  of  possessions  in  America — that  formed  by 

the  West  India  Islands  and  British  Guiana.     In 
The  West 
Indies  and       the    early    part    of  the    century,   their  sugar  and 

British  coffee   plantations,  worked  by  slave  labour,  and 

Guiana.  '  '  ..  .  ., 

exposed  to  no  foreign  competition,  while  pro- 
tection was  still  in  vogue,  supplied  the  whole  British  Empire 
and  brought  untold  wealth  to  the  planters.  The  first  great 
blow  to  them  was  the  abolition  of  the  slave  trade  in  1832; 
the  free  black  labour  was  never  so  regular  or  efficient  as  that 
which  prevailed  under  the  unhappy  old  system.  But  Free 
Trade  proved  an  even  deadlier  foe  to  these  once  flourishing 
islands  ;  the  cheap  beet  sugar  of  Germany  and  France,  unfairly 
fostered  by  government  bounties,  has  underbid  West  Indian 
sugar  in  our  markets  for  many  years.  An  entire  collapse  in 
their  trade  has  taken  place,  and,  though  attempts  have  been 
made  to  replace  the  ruined  industry  by  developing  the  cultiva- 
tion of  tobacco,  cocoa,  and  fruits,  they  have  not  been  fully 
successful,  and  our  West  Indian  possessions  are  in  a  far  less 
happy  position  than  any  other  part  of  the  emjiire. 

We  have  still  to  deal  with  one  great  section  of  our  colonial 
possessions — those  situate  in  Africa.  In  181 5  we  held  no  more 
Th  Af  ■  n  ^^^^"  scattered  ports  along  the  shores  of  Guinea, 
colonies  in  at  the  mouth  of  the  Gambia,  in  Sierra  Leone,  and 
^5*  on     the     Gold    Coast,    together    with    the    new 

acquisitions  of  Cape  Colony,  taken  from  the  Dutch,  and 
Mauritius,  annexed  from  France,  by  the  Treaty  of  Vienna. 
The  stations  on  the  Guinea  coast  were  no  more  than  harbours, 
occupied,  in  spite  of  their  deadly  climate,  in  order  to  serve  as 
debouches  for  the  very  profitable  trade  of  the  valley  of  the 
Niger.  Mauritius  was  a  tropical  colony  of  the  same  sort  as 
Ceylon  or  Malacca,  profitable  both  from  its  sugar  plantations 
and  from  its  position  as  a  port  of  call  on  the  way  to  India. 
But  Cape  Colony  had  much  greater  possibilities  before  it, 
being   capable    of    illimitable    extension    to   the    north    over 


EARLY  TROUBLES   IN   SOUTH   AFRICA.  251 

thousands  of  miles  suitable  for  either  cattle-breeding  or  corn- 
growing.  Its  position  only  differed  from  that  of  Australia  in 
that  the  settlers  were  confronted  with  a  large  and  warlike 
population  of  Kaffirs,  who  showed  no  signs  of  dying  out  before 
the  advent  of  the  white  man,  like  the  Australian  natives. 

The   original   settlement   round    Cape  Town  was  and  has 
always    remained    Dutch,    but    from    181 5    onward    English 

settlers  kept  pouring  into  the  eastern  part  of  the  ^,     „  .  ,  , 
,  ,       ,  1       .  The  British 

colony,  where  they  are  completely  predommant.  Government 

A  jjreater  or  less  amount  of  friction  has  always  f-"^  ^^^ 
°  Boers. 

existed    between    the    British    Government    and 

the  Dutch  "Boers";  in  1836  a  great  body  of  these  settlers 
pushed  northward  in  order  to  set  up  independent  states  on  the 
Orange  river  and  in  Natal.  But  they  were  followed  up  by 
the  power  which  they  detested,  and  both  of  their  new  com- 
munities were  annexed.  A  second  migration,  or  "trek,"  of 
the  Boers  then  took  place  across  the  Vaal  river,  where  they 
founded  the  "  Transvaal,"  or  "  South  African  Republic."  This 
was  also  seized  for  a  moment  by  the  British,  but  in  1852-54  we 
evacuated  both  it  and  the  Orange  river  district,  which  once 
more  organized  themselves  as  independent  states.  Natal, 
however,  has  always  remained  a  British  colony,  and  the  Dutch 
element  there  has  for  a  long  time  not  been  predominant. 

The   curse    of  the  South   African  colonies   from  their  first 
foundation  has  been  the  incessant  breaking  out  of  Kaffir  wars ; 
since  181 5  there  have  been  at  least  a  score  of 
them.     The    most    important   was   the  Zulu  war  wars— 

of  1879;   a  series  of  kings   of  genius  had  built  Subjection  of 

...  .      .  -  ^     re  ■  1.      the  Zulus, 

up  a  military  organization  of  great  efficiency,  by 

which  the  Zulus  made  themselves  masters  of  all  the  neighbour- 
ing tribes.  The  attitude  of  their  ruler,  Cetewayo,  seemed  so 
threatening  that  Sir  Bartle  Frere  declared  war  on  him  and 
invaded  his  dominions.  But  the  Zulus  vindicated  their  warlike 
reputation  by  falling  upon  and  annihilating  a  whole  British 
regiment  and  several  thousand  native  allies  at  the  surprise  of 


252        ENGLAND   IN    THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

Isandula.  It  was  not  till  large  reinforcements,  'under  Sir 
Garnet  Wolseley,  had  been  hurried  out  from  England,  that 
Cetewayo's  power  was  destroyed  at  the  battle  of  Ulundi,  and 
his  realm  passed  under  British  suzerainty. 

Shortly  before  the  Zulu  war  (1877)  we  annexed  the  Transvaal 
republic,  where  the  Boer  settlers  seemed  in  danger  of  being 

exterminated  by  their  black  neighbours,  and  a 
The  Boer  ^  ^  f..,      t.      , 

^ar— The  state  of  anarchy  was  settnig  m.  1  he  Dutch  pro- 
Transvaal       tested  at  the  time,  but  not  much   attention  was 

paid  to  their  complaints  till,  in  1880,  after  the 
Zulus  had  been  destroyed  and  the  Gladstone  cabinet  had 
susperseded  that  of  Lord  Beaconsfield,  they  suddenly  rose  in 
arms,  and  destroyed  or  besieged  the  small  British  garrisons 
which  occupied  the  country.  Troops  hurried  up  from  Natal 
and  the  Cape  were  checked  at  the  combats  at  Laing's  Neck 
and  the  Ingogo  river ;  but  the  worst  disgrace  was  not  suffered 
till  the  fight  at  Majuba  Hill  (February  27,  1881),  where  the 
British  were  thrust  out  of  the  strong  position  they  had  taken, 
with  heavy  loss,  including  that  of  their  commander,  Sir  Pomeroy 
CoUey.  Mr.  Gladstone  thereupon  made  peace  with  the  Boers, 
granting  them  their  independence  under  a  very  light  and 
nominal  admission  of  vassalage  to  Great  Britain. 

Since   then  rich  gold-mines   have  been   discovered   in    the 
Transvaal,  to  which  thousands  of  British  subjects  have  flocked ; 

their  centre  is  Johannesburg,  now  a  town   of  a 

gold— Dn        hundred  thousand  souls.     The  Boer  government 

Jameson's  has  always  been  carried  on  in  a  most  narrow- 
**  Raid."  . 

minded  and  retrograde  spirit ;  nearly  all  political 

rights  are  refused  to  the  "  Uitlander "  settlers  by  the   Dutch 

farmers,  who  now  form  a  decided  minority  in  the  land  which 

they  are  themselves  unable  or  unwilling  to  develop.     Constant 

chafing  against  this  misrule  finally  led  to  a  conspiracy  on  the  part 

of  the  immigrants,  and  in  December,  1895,  there  was  a  rising 

at  Johannesburg,  to  aid  which  Dr.  Jameson,  then  a  high  official 

of  the  British  South  African  Company,  made  a  most  unwise 


JAMESON'S   RAID.  253 

and  unjustifiable  incursion  into  the  Transvaal  at  the  head  of 
five  hundred  of  his  mounted  police.  They  were  defeated, 
surrounded,  and  captured  en  i7iasse  by  the  Boers,  whereupon 
the  Johannesburgers  laid  down  their  arms.  Dr.  Jameson's 
escapade  not  only  brought  us  into  trouble  with  Germany,*  but 
made  our  relations  with  the  Transvaal  far  more  difficult  than 
before,  as  President  Kriiger  not  unnaturally  persisted  in  believ- 
ing that  the  British  authorities  in  South  Africa,  if  not  the  Colonial 
Office  in  London  also,  were  at  the  back  of  Jameson's  raid. 

Since  then  affairs  in  the  Transvaal  have  always  been  in  the 
most  strained  condition,  and  difficulties  may  at  any  moment 
break  out.      The  most  deplorable   part    of  the 
"  Raid  "  has  been  that  it  has  embittered  the  feel-  ^°"fo""^^ 
ings  between  the  Dutch  and  English  inhabitants  between 
of  South  Africa,  which  had  been  slowly  improving  \?-^^  j"^ 
since  the  Boer  war  of  1880.     It  has  also  deferred 
for  many  years  the  project  of  a  South  African  confederation, 
after   the   manner   of  that  which  has  been  so  successful   in 
Canada ;  as  long  as  the  present  relations  prevail  between  the 
two  races,  nothing  can  be  done. 

The  South   African   colonies,   however,   have   other  foreign 

politics  beside  those  which  concern  the  two  Boer  republics. 

Down  to  1884  we  were  the  only  European  power 

possessing  a  lodgment  in  the  southern  end  of  the  ^^^"^.^",. 
^  ^  ^  colonization 

"  Dark  Continent,"  save  for  the  decaying  Portu-  and  the 
guese  colonies  of  Angola  and  Mozambique.  A  scramble  for 
slow  and  peaceful  extension  of  Cape  Colony 
northward  seemed  the  natural  Hne  of  development.  In  187 1 
we  annexed  Griqualand  West,  where  rich  diamond  mines  had 
just  been  discovered,  and  the  town  of  Kimberley  was  growing 
up.  A  little  later  Basutoland  and  other  inland  districts  were 
taken  under  our  protection.  But  in  1884  Prince  Bismarck, 
then  still  at  the  height  of  his  power,  proclaimed  a  German 
Protectorate  over  Damaraland,  the  coast  district  north  of  the 
*  See  p.  204. 


254        ENGLAND    IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 


Orange  River,  while  in  1885-90  similar  claims  were  set  up  by 
Germany  to  the  maritime  tract  on  the  eastern  side  of  Africa 
north  of  Mozambique.  This  intrusion  of  a  new  colonial  power 
into  regions  which  we  had  fondly  marked  out  as  likely  to  pass 


into  our  own  bands,  forced  England  to  take  action,  and  the 
"  scramble  for  Africa  "  began. 

The   danger  was  that    the   Germans    pushing    inland  from 
both  sides  of  the  continent,  might  meet  in  the  valley  of  the 


THE   "SCRAMBLE   FOR   AFRICA."  255 

Zambezi,  and  shut   out  our  colonies  from  further  expansion 

northward.     Hence  came  about  the  establishment   „  .  .  , 

of  the    two    great    Chartered    Companies.      The  South 

"  South  Africa  Company,"  incorporated  in  1889,  African 

of  which  Mr.  Cecil  Rhodes  has  always  been  the  Policy  of 

leading  spirit,  seized  Matabeleland  and  Mashona-  J?/-  C^^^^ 

.,,,,,,  Rhodes. 

land   after   a    short   war   with   the   Matabeles,   a 

warlike  Zulu  race  who  were  formerly  dominant  in  the  regions 

inland  from  the  Transvaal  and  Mozambique.     The  "  Central 

Africa  Company  "  operated  further  to  the  north,  and  occupied 

the  regions  beyond  the  Zambezi  and  to  the  west  of  the  great 

lake  Nyassa.     Their  sphere  of  influence  was  put  under  formal 

British  protection  in   1891.      Thus  the  southern  end  of  Mr. 

Rhodes's  great  "  Cape  Town  to  Cairo"  scheme  was  successfully 

put  beyond  the  danger  of  German  or  Portuguese  interference. 

Other  complications,   however,  arose  further  northward  in 

the    region    about    Zanzibar — an    Arab    state    with    a    large 

undefined    dominion    on    the    mainland   opposite  „  .    . 

the  island  capital  of  the  Sultan.    The  German  an-  Germany  in 

nexations  about  Vitu  and  Dar-es-Salaam  (1 88 s-90)    East  Central 

^  ,  .  .     ,        ^  .     '  Africa, 

devoured  a  great   part   of  his  nommal   empire ; 

Mombasa  and  the  rest  were  leased  to  a  third  British  Chartered 

Company — the  "East  Africa    Company,"    founded   in    1888. 

Zanzibar  itself  was  placed  under  British  protection  in   1890, 

and  an  elaborate  treaty  with  Germany  delimited  the  spheres  of 

the  two  powers,   the    line   being  drawn   at  the  river  Umba. 

The  "  East  Africa  Company  "  ceded  its  rights  to  the  British 

Government  in  1895,  so  that  this  territory  is  now  held  directly 

under  the  Crown.      This  protectorate  extends  all  along  the 

east  coast  of  Africa,  from  Mombasa  to  the  river  Juba,  where  it 

touches  on  the  north  a  sphere  of  Italian  influence,  reaching  up 

to  the  mouth  of  the  Red  Sea.     Beyond  this  lies  another  patch 

of  British  territory  in  Somaliland,  facing  Aden  across  the  straits 

of  Bab-el-Mandeb,  and  so  guarding  the  way  to  Suez. 

One  further  annexation  has  been  made  in  East  Africa,  as 


256        ENGLAND   IN   THE    NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

late  as  1894.  In  that  year  we  assumed  a  protectorate  over  the 
inland  kingdom  of  Uganda  and  the  neighbouring 
*  regions.      British  missionary  enterprise  had  for 

many  years  been  very  vigorous  in  this  direction,  and  our  atten- 
tion had  been  called  to  it  by  the  cruel  persecutions  of  Christians 
carried  out  by  Mtesa  and  his  son  Mwanga,  the  despot  who 
murdered  Bishop  Hannington  and  his  companions  in  1888. 
The  Uganda  protectorate  lies  about  the  two  great  lakes  of  the 
Victoria  and  Albert  Nyanza,  and  the  headwaters  of  the  Nile. 
Expeditions  are  at  the  present  moment  on  the  march  to  push 
northward  from  this  region  and  connect  our  dominions  with 
the  middle  Nile,  where  the  British  and  Egyptian  flags  are 
floating  at  Fashoda.  If  it  had  not  been  for  long  civil  wars  in 
Uganda,  this  task  would  have  been  ere  now  completed.  But 
the  necessity  for  putting  down  Mwanga  and  his  partisans  was 
followed  by  that  for  subduing  a  revolt  of  our  own  Soudanese 
mercenaries,  and  three  years  have  been  lost.  Meanwhile  a 
railway  is  being  rapidly  pushed  up  from  Mombasa  to  connect 
our  inland  protectorate  with  our  head-quarters  at  Zanzibar,  a 
task  that  will  probably  be  completed  before  the  century  is  out. 

The  programme  sketched  out  by  Mr.  Rhodes,  of  drawing  a 
^^  continuous    chain    of   British   protectorates   from 

Town  to  Cape  Colony  to  the  Nile  valley,  has  thus  been 
Cairo  "  completed  except  at  one  point.     Beyond  the  north 

end  of  Lake  Nyassa,  German  East  Africa  touches 
the  Belgian  "  Congo  Free  State,"  and  until  a  right  of  transit  is 
acquired  through  one  or  the  other  of  those  territories,  the 
"  Cape  Town  to  Cairo  "  route  cannot  be  practically  used.  It 
is  probable  that  some  arrangement  will  ultimately  be  made 
by  which  this  difficulty  can  be  got  rid  of. 

In  Western  Africa  the  power  with  which  we  have  had  most 
of  our  difficulties  is  not  Germany,  but  France.  Down  to 
the  third  quarter  of  the  century  we  conducted  well-nigh  the 
whole  trade  of  this  part  of  the  continent,  through  our  settle- 
ments  of  the  Gambia,  Sierra   Leone,  the   Gold   Coast,  and 


DISPUTES   WITH   FRANCE   IN   AFRICA.  257 

Lagos.  The  region  was  too  unhealthy  to  tempt  us  to  attempt 
inland  conquest,  and  after  several  expeditions  to 
chastise  the  coast  tribes,  notably  the  Ashantees,  ^^^g^^j 
we  always  withdrew  to  our  ports  again.  But  colonies — 
expansion  inland  has  been  forced  upon  us  by  ^."ctionwith 
the  French,  who,  starting  from  their  colonies  of 
Senegal  and  the  Ivory  Coast,  have  conquered  the  inland  of 
Guinea,  or  the  "  French  Soudan,"  as  they  now  call  it,  so  as  to 
cut  off  our  Gambia  and  Sierra  Leone  settlements  from  their 
"  hinterland."  To  prevent  Lagos  from  being  treated  in  the 
same  way,  and  to  keep  the  whole  basin  of  the  Lower  Niger  free 
for  English  trade,  the  "  Royal  Niger  Company  "  was  organized 
in  1885,  and  the  coast  from  Lagos  eastward  as  far  as  the 
Cameruns  was  taken  under  British  protection.  The  Niger 
company  has  worked  up  the  great  stream,  till  its  officials  met 
the  French  descending  it  from  the  neighbourhood  of  Timbuctu. 
The  expected  collision  occurred  at  several  points,  and  led  to 
great  diplomatic  difficulties,  which  were  ultimately  settled  only 
in  1898,  by  a  treaty  which  gave  the  lands  on  the  Middle  Niger 
to  France,  and  those  from  Say  to  the  sea,  along  the  Lower 
Niger,  to  England.  This  solid  block  of  territory  exploited  by 
the  Niger  Company  is  cut  off  from  any  possibility  of  expansion 
eastward  by  the  activity  of  the  Germans  in  the  Cameruns  and 
the  French  on  the  Ubangi.  The  territories  claimed  by  those 
powers  now  completely  surround  our  Niger  protectorate. 
.  One  further  boundary  in  Africa  remained  to  be  settled — that 
between  France  and  England  in  the  regions  where  the  basins 
of  the  Congo  and  the  Nile  meet.  We  have  already  had  to 
describe  the  Marchand  *  expedition  to  Fashoda  and  its  con- 
sequences. The  last  of  them  has  been  the  final  delimitation 
of  the  French  and  English  spheres  of  influence  in  that  de- 
batable land.  By  an  agreement  reached  in  March,  1899, 
we  have  taken  over,  for  ourselves,  or  our  Egyptian  protegees^ 
Darfur,  Kordofan,  and  the  Bahr-el-Gazal;  while  France 
♦  See  p.  208. 

S 


258        ENGLAND   IN   THE    NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

is  to  be  permitted  to  conquer  Kanem  Wadai  and  Baghirmi, 
when  she  can  succeed  in  pushing  troops  into  those  remote 
regions. 

Thus  the  "scramble  for  Africa"  has  ended  in  the  annexa- 
tion, real  or  nominal,  of  the  whole  continent  by  one  European 
power  or  another.  Except  some  desert  tracts  in  the  Eastern 
Sahara,  south  of  Tripoli,  there  is  no  region  which  is  not  claimed 
by  one  of  the  great  colonizing  states.  The  boundaries  now 
settled,  however,  are  in  many  cases  so  unnatural,  that  their 
modification  is  certain  to  be  one  of  the  main  employments 
of  the  twentieth  century. 

It  remains  to  add  a  few  words  about  a  topic  which  for  the 
last  ten  years  has  been  in  every  mouth — Imperial  Federation. 
The  oroblem  ^^  ^^^  present  moment  the  Crown  is  the  only 
of  Imperial  formal  tie  between  the  many  colonies  and  pos- 
Federation.  sessions  over  which  the  Union  Jack  floats.  But 
racial  patriotism  and  the  memories  of  a  great  past  tell  in 
favour  of  federation  in  the  majority  of  the  colonies,  no  less 
than  in  the  mother-country.  A  firm  and  well-compacted  union 
of  all  the  British  lands  would  form  a  state  that  might  control 
the  whole  world. 

But  if  sentiment  is  all  in  favour  of  Imperial  Federation,  there 
are  many  practical  difficulties  in  its  way.  Supposing  that  the 
Constitu-  union  were  accomplished,  and  a  Federal  Parlia- 
tional  ment  of  the  whole  British  world  assembled,  would 

difficulties.  ^Y^e  mother-country  allow  herself  to  be  outvoted 
and  her  policy  changed  by  a  combination  of  her  daughter- 
states  ?  On  the  other  hand,  would  Canada  be  prepared  to 
enter  into  a  war  for  purely  Australian  interests,  or  South  African 
colonists  vote  money  freely  for  a  struggle  to  keep  the  "  open 
door"  in  China?  It  is  extremely  possible  that  such  doubts 
would  prove  to  be  unnecessary,  and  that  in  the  spirit  of  mutual 
dependence  every  member  of  the  Federation  would  make  its 
sister's  quarrels  its  own.  The  example  of  the  United  States, 
whose  foreign  policy  has  seldom  been  handicapped  by  internal 


IMPERIAL  FEDERATION.  259 

differences  of  opinion  between  the  various  states,  is  there  to 
comfort  us.  A  much  more  serious  objection  turns  upon  the 
matter  of  Free  Trade  and  Protection. 

All  British  commercial  policy  since  the  days  of  Peel  has  been 
conducted  on  free-trade  lines ;  they  undoubtedly  suit  a  great 
manufacturing  country,  which  at  the  same  time 
owns  the  carrying  trade  of  half  the  world.  On  the  diffi!culties.^ 
other  hand,  many  of  the  colonies  are  furiously 
protectionist  in  sentiment,  and  tax  the  goods  of  the  mother- 
country  no  less  than  those  of  the  foreigner.  Federation  would 
certainly  be  followed  by  a  commercial  union,  by  which  the 
colonies  would  undertake  to  give  the  products  of  Britain  a 
preferential  tariff.  Canada  set  the  example  in  the  excellent 
agreement  made  in  1898.  But  in  return  they  would  be  almost 
certain  to  ask  that  Britain  should  abandon  her  hard-and-fast 
line  of  Free  Trade,  and  impose  duties  on  foreign  goods,  so  as 
to  give  her  daughter-states  an  advantage  over  the  alien.  It  is 
probable  that  Great  Britain  might  ultimately  consent  to  go 
some  way  in  this  direction,  seeing  the  enormous  political 
benefits  that  would  ensue.  But  it  would  certainly  be  a  great 
wrench  to  her  to  reverse  the  commercial  policy  of  fifty  years, 
and  to  revert  to  ideas  that  have  been  long  discredited. 

India  supplies  a  third  set  of  difficulties  in  the  way  of  federa- 
tion.    It  is  hard  to  see  how  she  can  be  fitted  into 
the  scheme.     No  doubt  the  colonies  might   be  difficulty^" 
given  their  fair  share    in  her  administration,  as 
long  as  the  present  condition  of  affairs  continues.     But  if  India 
is  ever  trusted  with  a  greater  measure  of  self-government  than 
she  at  present  enjoys,  it  is  clear  that  her  250,000,000  inhabitants 
would   weigh  very  heavily  in  the  federation.       If  taken  into 
partnership,  she  would  swamp  the  rest  of  the  empire. 

In  spite  of  all  such  difficulties — and  there  are  dozens  more 
which  might  be  urged,  turning  on  various  financial,  military, 
and  administrative  points — there  seems  to  be  no  really  insuper- 
able barrier  to  the  carrying  out  of  the  great  scheme.     The 


26o        ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

examples  of  the  Canadian  federation,  which  has  worked  so  well 
for  thirty  years,  and  of  the  Australian  federation. 
Federation?  "^^'^ich  is  just  being  accomplished,  are  decidedly 
encouraging  for  the  larger  scheme.  The  matter 
must,  to  a  very  large  extent,  be  settled  by  sentiment ;  to  thrust 
union  on  recalcitrant  members  would  be  fatal.  But  in  most 
parts  of  the  colonial  world  the  sentiment  is  tending  in  the 
required  direction,  and  "  where  there  is  a  will  there  is  a  way." 
The  progress  towards  federation  must  inevitably  be  slow,  and 
preceded  by  many  half-measures  and  partial  agreements. 
These  are,  indeed,  already  coming  into  existence  ;  facts  like  the 
Australian  "  auxiliary  squadron ",  the  South  African  money 
contribution  to  the  imperial  navy,  the  commercial  treaty  with 
Canada  in  1898,  the  lately  concluded  inter-colonial  agreements 
between  Canada  and  Australia,  and  Canada  and  the  West 
Indies,  are  all  steps  toward  the  great  end.  Most  important  of 
all,  perhaps,  is  the  ever-growing  rapidity  of  communications  by 
sea  and  land ;  the  barriers  of  distance  are  the  most  formidable 
hindrances  to  union,  but  they  are  being  quickly  removed.  An 
achievement  like  the  Canadian-Pacific  Railway  not  merely 
develops  a  new  province,  but  helps  to  bind  the  whole  empire 
together.  British  Columbia  is,  for  all  practical  purposes,  as 
near  to  London  now  as  Malta  was  in  18 15.  As  communica- 
tions grow  easier,  the  consciousness  of  common  origin  and 
interests  must  grow  stronger,  and  the  inter-dependence  of  the 
mother  country  and  the  colonies  be  better  realized  by  both 
parties.  Mutual  ignorance  was  really  the  reason  why,  earlier 
in  the  century.  Great  Britain  sometimes  seemed  an  un- 
sympathetic parent,  or  her  colonists  discontented  children. 
We  are  now  long  past  the  time  when  Canada  and  Australia 
seemed  so  far  off  and  so  unimportant  that  English  statesmen 
talked  lightly  of  the  day  when  they  would,  in  the  natural  course 
of  things,  "  cut  the  painter,"  and  leave  Great  Britain  alone  as  a 
small  manufacturing  island  in  the  North  Atlantic.  What 
difficulties  there  are,  will  now  proceed  more  from  the  local 


IMPERIAL   FEDERATION.  261 

patriotisms  and  jealousies  of  the  colonies  than  from  the 
impracticability  of  the  mother  country.  They  must  not  be 
undervalued ;  it  is  conceivable  even  yet  that  the  great  English- 
speaking  peoples  may  drift  asunder,  and  be  forced  to  play  a 
secondary  part  in  the  development  of  the  twentieth  century. 
If,  as  we  confidently  hope,  they  hold  together  and  combine  in 
some  more  or  less  definite  federal  scheme,  the  future  of  the 
whole  world  lies  in  the  hands  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race. 


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264 


APPENDIX. 


POPULATION  OF  THE  UNITED  KINGDOM. 


England  and 
Wales. 

Scotland. 

Ireland.* 

Total. 

I80I 

..          8,892,536 

1,608,402 

5.319,867  (?) 

15,720,805 

I8II 

..         10,164,256 

1,805,864 

6,000,000  (?) 

17,970,120 

I82I 

12,000,236 

2,091,521 

6,801,827 

20,893,584 

I83I 

..       i3>896,797 

2,364,386 

7,767,401 

24,048,584 

I84I 

..       15,914,148 

2,620,184 

8,175,124 

26,709,456 

185 1 

..       17,927,609 

2,880,742 

6.552,385 

27,368,736 

I86I 

20,066,224 

3,062,294 

5,798,967 

28,927,485 

I87I 

22,712,256 

3,360,018 

5,412,377 

31,484,661 

I88I 

..         25974,439 

3>735,573 

5,174,836 

34,884,848 

IS9I 

29,002,525 

4,025,647 

4,704,750 

37,732,922 

•  No  accurate  Irish 

figurcB  can  be 

;iven  for  1801  or  i8 

II. 

THE   NATIONAL  DEBT. 

In  1792,  at  commencement  of  French  Revolutionary  War  239,663,421 

In  1802,  at  Peace  of  Amiens    ...             ...  ...  ...  537,653,008 

In  181 5,  after  Waterloo            ...             ...  ...  ...  861,039,049 

In  1837,  at  accession  of  Victoria              ...  ...  ...  761,422,570 

In  1854,  before  Crimean  War  ...             ...  ...  ...  769,082,549 

In  1857,  at  end  of  Crimean  War            ...  ...  .♦.  808,108,722 

In  1898         ...             ...             ...             ...  ...  ...  644,909,847 


APPENDIX. 


265 


FOREIGN   SOVEREIGNS   OF   THE   NINETEENTH 
CENTURY. 


Bonaparte,  "  First  Consul" 
Bonaparte      as      Emperor 

Napoleon  I 

Lxjuis  XVIII 

Napoleon  restored     March- 
Louis  XVIII.  restored     ... 

Charles  X 

Louis  Philippe       

Second  Republic 


FRANCE. 


1799-1804 

1804-1814 
1814-1815 
-June  1815 
1815-1824 
1824-1830 
1830-1848 
1848-1852 


Napoleon  IH.        „,         ,.,  1852-1870 
Third  Republic      ...           Sept.  4,  1870 

A.  Thiers,           President  1871-1873 

Marshal  Mac-Mahon  ,,  1873-1879 

J.  Grevy                         „  1879-1887 

M.  F.  Carnot                „  1887-1894 

J.  Casimir  Perrier        „  1894-1895 

Felix  Faure                    »,  1895-1899 

C.  Loubet                     M  X899- 


Paul ...  . 
Alexander  I. 
Nicholas  L  . 


RUSSIA. 

1796-1801  i  Alexander  II. 
1801-1825  I  Alexander  III. 
1825-1855  1  Nicholas  II. 


1855-1881 
1881-1894 
1894- 


PRUSSIA-GERMANY. 


Frederick-William  III.    ... 

1797 

-1840 

Frederick,  Emperor 

1888 

Frederick-William  IV.     ... 

1840 

-i860 

William  II.,  Emperor      . 

..     188S- 

William  I 

i860 

-1888 

Elected  German  Emperor 

1871 

AUSTRIA. 

Francis  II.,  "  Holy  Roman 

Ferdinand 

..    1835-1848 

Emperor"           

1792 

-1805 

Francis-Joseph      .^        , 

».     1848- 

Austria 


1805-1835 


SPAIN. 


Charles  IV 

Ferdinand  VII.  {de  jure)     1 
Joseph  Bonaparte  ((^/f /a c/f)  j 
Ferdinand  VII.  restored ... 
Isabella       


1788 


1808 

1808--1814 

1814-1833 
1833-1868 


First  Republic  ,,, 
Amadeus  of  Savoy 

Second  Republic  ... 
Alphonso  XII.  ... 
Alphonso  XIII.  ... 


1868-1870 
1870-1873 
1873-1875 
1875-1885 
1886- 


265 


APPENDIX. 


TYPICAL  BUDGETS. 


BUDGET   OF    1801-2,  LAST  OF  THE 
REVOLUTIONARY   WAR. 


Income. 

Expenditure, 

£ 

£ 

Customs        

8,758,184 

National     debt      and 

Excise            

11,573,427 

sinking  fund          ...     25,346,689 

Irish  receipts  (customs 

Navy 17,258,135 

and  excise  not    yet 

Army  and  ordnance         20,084,813 

amalgamated     with 

Civil  list  and  civil  ser- 

British)        

2,350.509 

vices            3,615,386 

Stamps           

3,249,122 

Miscellaneous           ...     11,177,917 

Land     and     assessed 

taxes           

4,648,078 

Income  tax 

5,^04,515 

Post-office      ... 

1.250,725 

Loans... 

36,145,059 

Miscellaneous 

1,461,509 

Total        ...     ;^75,24i,i28  Total 

A   ruinous   budget;  besides    the   ^36,145,059  raised 


...  ;^77,482,940 
by  issuing  new 
Government  stock,  the  greater  part  of  the  ;,{,"i  1,177,917  "  miscellaneous  "  in 
the  expenditure  column  is  to  be  accounttd  for  by  the  paying  off  of  an 
adverse  balance  of  exchequer  bills  from  1 801.  There  still  remains  a  deficit 
of  two  millions  !  There  are  no  loans  to  foreign  powers,  as  Austria  has 
withdrawn  from  the  war. 


BUDGET  OF    1810.    NAPOLEONIC   WAR   IN   PROGRESS. 


Income'. 

£ 

13,816,218 

Expcftditure 

£ 

Customs         

National      debt     and 

Excise             

Stamps           

Land     and     assessed 

25.350,990 
5,546,082 

sinking  fund 
Navy  ... 
Army  and  ordnance  ... 

33,433.828 
20,058.412 
23,188,631 

taxes           

8,011,205 

Civil     list     and     civil 

Income  tax     

Post-office       

1.5,492,215 
1.471,746 

services       

Loans       to       foreign 

1,533.140 

Loans  ... 
Miscellaneous 

15,690,826 
1,968,618 

powers        

Miscellaneous 

2,050,082 
5,079,547 

Total     ...     85,347,900  Total     ...     85,343,640 

The  amount  borrowed  by  loan  this  year,  and  that  lent  to  foreign  powers, 
are  both  below  the  average. 


APPENDIX 


a67 


BUDGET  OF   1820.    AFTER  THE  GREAT  PEACE. 


Incom€' 

£ 
11,475,259 

Expenditure, 

£ 

Custom*        

National      debt     and 

Excise             

28,941,629 

sinking  fund 

49,339,773 

Stamps            

6,853,986 

Navy 

5,943,879 

Land     and     asscssjd 

Army  and  ordnance... 

10,281,702 

taxes 

8,192,301 

Civil    list     and     civil 

Post-office      

1,621,326 

services       

2,268,940 

Borrowed     from     the 

Loans       to        foreign 

sinking  fund 

13,833,783 

powers        

48,464 

Miscellaneous 

1,867,308 

Miscellaneous            ... 

4,479,992 

Total     ... 

72,785,592 

Total     ... 

72,362,750 

The  customs  due^  have  been  cut  down,  the  income  tax  abolished,  the 
expenditure  on  army  and  navy  halved.  The  burden  of  the  national  debt 
remains  enormous.  The  cross-entries  in  both  columns  as  to  the  sinking 
fi&ad  should  be  regarded  as  cancelling  each  other. 


SIR   ROBERT  PEEL'S   LAST  BUDGET,  1846. 


Income. 

£ 

..     22,612,708 

Expenditure. 

£ 

Customs 

Interest    on     national 

Excise 

..     15,563,084 

debt,  etc 

27,656,55s 

Stamps 

..       7.895,628 

Navy 

7,803,464 

Land     and     as^es^c 

d 

Army  and  ordnance  ... 

9,061,233 

taxes 

..       4,479,944 

Civil    list    and     civil 

Income  tax     ... 

..       5,656,528 

services 

2,736,806 

Post-office      ... 

2,004,007 

Miscellaneous 

7.903,533 

Miscellaneous 

..       1,489,505 

;^59,  701,404 

Total     ... 

Total     ... 

;^55. 161,591 

The  income  tax  has  been  reintroduced  by  Peel.  The  expenditure  on 
the  national  debt  is  largely  reduced  by  the  abandonment  of  the  old 
**  sicking  fund."     A  surplus  of;^4,ooo,ooo  realised. 


268 


APPENDIX. 


A  CRIMEAN  WAR   BUDGET,  1855. 


Income. 

2f, 991. 675 

Expenditure, 
Interest     on    national 

Customs         

Excise            

17,042,295 

debt,  etc 27,864,533 

Stamps           

7,159,539 

Navy               14,490,105 

Land     and     assessed 

Army  and  ordnance         13,831,601 

taxes           

3,225,121 

Civil     list    and     civil 

Income  tax 

10,922,266 

services       7,706,721 

Post-office      

2,635,336 

Miscellaneous            ...       5,242,026 

Miscellaneous 

1,115,335 

/64,o9i,567 

Total     ... 

Total     ...     ;^69, 134,986 

A  deficit  of  ;i^5, 000,000  to  be  mnde  up  by  borrow^ing,  in  spite  of  a 
heavily  increased  income  tax,  raised  from  'jd.  to  is.  ^d.  on  the  /^.  The 
war  has  swelled  the  naval  and  military  expenses  by  ^10,000,000. 


A  MODERN   BUDGET,  1898. 


Income. 

Customs        

Excise            

Stamps          (including 

death  duties,  etc.) 
Land     and      assessed 

£ 

21,798,000 
28,300,000 

18,750,000 

Expenditure. 

Interest     on    national 

debt,  etc 25,000,000 

Navy 20,852,000 

Army 19,330,000 

Civil     list     and    civil 

taxes           

Income  tax    ... 

Post-office      

Telegraphs     ... 
Miscellaneous 

2,430,000 

17,250,000 

12,170,000 

3,010,000 

2,986,004 

106,694,004 

services       22,818,003 

Miscellaneous           ...     14,935,991 

Total     ...     £ 

Total     ...    ;^io2,935,994 

Customs,  owing  to  huge  remissions  of  taxation  since  i860,  remain  low. 
"Stamps"  are  enormously  increased,  largely  owing  to  new  death-duties. 
The  Post-office  hrings  in  alino  t  five  times  its  yield  of  1855.  Telegraphs, 
now  a  Government  monop  )ly,  are  a  new  heading.  Income  tax,  at  8^. 
in  the  pound,  yields  half  as  much  again  as  it  did  at  ix.  ^d.  in  1855.  Civil 
service  expenditure  has  increased  at  an  even  greater  rate  than  military 
and  naval.     The  national  debt  shrinks  every  year. 


INDEX. 


Abdul-Aziz,  Sultan  of  Turkey,  172 

Abdul-Hamid,  Sultan  of  Turkey, 
massacres  of,  203 ;  his  war  with 
Greece,  205 

Abdur  Rahman,  ameer  of  Cabul,  236, 

237 
Abercromby,  Sir  Ralph,  his  victory  in 

Egypt,  5 
Aberdeen,    Lord,   joins    the  Whigs, 

127  ;  engages  in  Crimean  war,  129  ; 

resigns  office,  136 
Abu-Klea,  battle  of,  183 
Abyssinian  war,  the,  159,  160 
Addington,  Henry,  prime  minister,  4  ; 

makes  peace  of  Amiens,  9  ;  resigns 

office,  18  ;  joins  Grenville  ministry, 

28  ;   home    secretary,    59  ;     retires 

from  pohtics,  63 
Afghan  war,   the  first,  123,  124 ;  the 

second,  235,  236 
Africa,    South,    the    English    in,    51, 

250-255 
Africa,    Western,    colonies    of,    250 ; 

history  of,  257 ;  struggle  with   the 

French  in,  257 
Alabama,  case  of  the,  150;  arbitration 

concerning,  167 
Albert  of  Coburg,  Prince  Consort,  91 
Albuera,  battle  of,  42 
Alexander  I.  of  Russia,  7 ;  his  wars 

with  Napoleon,  24,  30,  44 
Alexander  II.  of  Russia,  his  war  with 

England,    137  ;    invades    Turkey, 

173 ;  death  of,  192 


Alexander  III.  of  Russia,  his  policy, 

192 
Alexandria,    battle   of,   5 ;    bombard- 
ment of,  181 
Alma,  battle  of  the,  132 
America.     See  United  States 
American    colonies,    history  of   the, 

246-250 
Amiens,  peace  of,  7 
Arabi  Pasha,  rebellion  of,  180,  181 
Armed  Neutrality,  the,  2,  6 
Armenian  atrocities,  the,  203 
Assaye,  battle  of,  216 
Auckland,  Lord,  Governor-General  of 

India,  222 
Austerlitz,  battle  of,  25 
Australia,  British  settlement  in,  212; 

history  of,  241-244 
Austria,  her  wars  with  Napoleon,  24, 

38,  46  ;  Italian  wars  of,  103,   145  ; 

Prussian  war  of,  159 
Atbara,  battle  of  the,  207 

Badajoz,  siege  of,  45 

Balaclava,  battle  of,  134 

Balfour,  Arthur,  Irish  secretary,  190 

Bareilly,  battle  of,  233 

Baylen,  capitulation  of,  35 

Beaconsfield,  Lord.     See  Disraeli 

Bentinck,     Lord    George,    leader    of 

Protectionists,  98,  107 
Berlin,  decrees,  31  ;  treaty  of,  174 
Bismarck,  Prince,   Prussian  minister, 

attacks    Denmark,     146  ;    crushes 


270 


INDEX. 


Austria,  159;  attacks  France,  167; 
his  foreign   policy,  159,  167,  174; 
his    colonial    policy,    253 ;    driven 
from  office,  192 
Bliicher,    Marshal,     commands     the 

Prussians  at  Waterloo,  50 
Bonaparte,   Jerome,  King  of  West- 
phalia, 30 
Bonaparte,  Joseph,  King  of  Naples, 

27;  King  of  Spain,  35 
Bonaparte,  Louis,   King  of  Holland, 

27 ;  abdicates,  41 
Bonaparte,     Louis    Napoleon.      See 

Napoleon  IIL 
Bonaparte,  Napoleon.  See  Napoleon  I. 
Borodino,  battle  of,  45 
Boulogne,  Napoleon  at,  17 
British  Central  Africa,  255 
British  Columbia,  colony  of,  248 
British  East  Africa  Company,  255 
British  Guiana,  annexed,  51 ;  its  boun- 
dary disputes,  203 
British  South  Africa  Company,  255 
Broad  Church  party,  the,  123 
Brougham,  Henry,  Lord  Chancellor, 

73 
Browning,  Robert,  119 
Bulgarian  atrocities,  the,  173 
Burmah,  first  war  with,  222 ;  second 

war  with,  228  ;  annexation  of,  236 
Busaco,  battle  of,  40 
Byron,  George,  Lord,  66,  119 

Cabul,    British    disaster    at,    223 ; 

taken  by  General  Roberts,  236 
Calder,  Admiral,  defeats  Villeneuve, 

22 
Canada,  invaded  by  Americans,  48 ; 

Fenian   raids   in,    160;   history   of, 

247,  248  ;  dominion  of,  249 
Candahar,    seized    by    British,    223 ; 

second  conquest  of,  234 ;  battle  of, 

235  ,  .      ^      . 

Canning,    George,    64;    his    foreign 

policy,  66  ;  prime  minister,  67 
Cape    Colony,    annexed    by    liritain, 

213  ;  subsequent  history  of,  2^x,  252 
Carlyle,  Thomas,  historian,  120,  121 
Carnatic,  annexed  by  Wellesley,  216 
Caroline,  Queen,  her  troubles,  62,  63 


Castlereagh,  Lord,  reactionary  policy 

of,  59,  60 ;  death  of,  63 
Catholic     Emancipation      Bill.      See 

Emancipation,  Catholic 
Cato  Street  conspiracy,  61 
Cavagnari,   Sir    Louis,    murdered   at 

Cabul,  236 
Cavendish,  Lord   Frederick,  murder 

of,  179 
Cavour,  Sardinian  minister,  145 
Caw n pore,  massacre  of,   232  ;  battle 

of,  233 
Central  African  Company,  the,  255 
Chamberlain,  Joseph,  opposes  Home 
Rule,  186,  188  ;  joins  the  Unionist 
ministry,  202 
Ciiaiasia,  battle  of,  236 
Charles  Albert,  King  of  Sardinia,  his 

war  with  Austria,  103 
Charles   IV.    of  Spain,    deposed    by 

Napoleon,  35 
C  harles  X.  of  France,  deposed,  72 
Charlotte,    Princess,    marriage    and 

death  of,  59 
Chartist  movement,  the,  93,  loi 
Chillianwallah,  battle  of,  226 
China,   first   war  with,   240;   second 
war  with,  141  ;  later  developments 
in,  240 
Churchill,  Lord  Randolph,  194 
Ciudad  Rodrigo,  storm  of,  45 
Clarence,    William,    duke    of.      See 

William  IV. 
Clerkenwell  Explosion,  the,  161 
Cleveland,    Grover,    American   presi- 
dent, 204 
Clyde,  Colin  Campbell,   Lord,  sup- 
presses Indian  Mutiny,  233 
Codrington,  Admiral,  at  Navarino,  68 
Confederation  of  the  Rhine,  25 
"Conservative,"   rise    of    the   party- 
name,  94 
Consols,  converted  by  Goschen,  194 
"  Conspiracy  to  Murder  "  Bill,  the,  143 
Continental  system,  31,  32 
Convention  of  Cintra,  36 
Copenhagen,  battle  of,  6;  seized  by 

British,  33 
Corporations  Act,  the,  repealed,  69 
Cotton  Famine,  the,  148 


INDEX. 


271 


Council,  the  "  Orders  in,"  of  1807,  32 
Crimea,  invasion  of  the,  132-138 
Cumberland,  Ernest,  Duke  of,  King 

of  Hanover,  90 
Cyprus,  annexed  by  Beaconsfield,  174, 

175 

Dalhousie,  Lord,  Governor-General 
of  India,  227,  228 

Delhi,  taken  by  British,  216;  seized 
during  Mutiny,  232 

Denmark,  wars  of  England  with,  6, 
33  ;  wars  of,  with  Prussia,  146 

Derby,  Edward  Stanley,  Earl  of, 
prime  minister  in  1852,  107 ;  in  1858, 
143 ;  in  i866,  156 

Devonshire,  Duke  of.    See  Hartington 

Disraeli,  Benjamin,  Earl  of  Beacons- 
field,  leads  the  Protectionists,  98, 
99  ;  chancellor  of  the  exchequer, 
107,  143  ;  prime  minister,  163 ;  his 
Reform  Bill,  162  ;  second  ministry 
of,  170  ;  at  Congress  of  Berlin,  174  ; 
loses  office,  177 

Eastern  Question,  the,  128,  130 
East  India  Company,  the,  abolished, 

144.  234 
Education  Acts,  the,  165,  194 
Egypt,    French    expelled     from,    5 ; 

English  interference  in,   171,    180; 

conquered  by  Lord  Wolseley,  181. 

See  also  Soudan 
Elba,  Napoleon  in,  47,  49 
EUenborough ,  Lord ,  Governor  •  General 

of  India,  224,  225 
Emancipation,  Catholic,  Pitt's  scheme 

for,  4  ;    urged  by  the  Whigs,  28  ; 

granted  by  Wellington,  70 
Eylau,  battle  of,  30 

Factory  Acts,  the,  96,  116 
Fashoda,  the  French  at,  208 
Fenians,  the,  160,  161 
Ferdinand  VII.  of  Spain,  kidnapped 

by  Napoleon,  35  ;  his  reign,  83 
Ferozeshah,  battle  of,  226 
Forster,  William,  Irish  secretary,  178 
Fox,  Charles  James,  takes  office,  28  ; 

dies,  28 


France.     See  under  names  of  kings 

and  statesmen 
Francis  II.,  Emperor,  his  wars  with 

Napoleon,  24,  25,  37,  38,  46 
Francis  Josepli,  Emperor,  suppresses 

Hungarian    revolt,     103 ;    his   war 

with   France,    144  ;    his  war  with 

Prussia,  159 
Frederick  William  III.  of  Prussia,  his 

wars  with  Napoleon,  29,  30,  46,  10 
Frederick  William  IV.  of  Prussia,  his 

dealings  with  the  Revolution,  104 
Free  Kirk,  the,  of  Scotland,  125,  126 
Free  Trade,  advocated  by  Huskisson, 

64  ;  by  Peel,  98 
Friedland,  battle  of,  30 
Fuentes  d'Onoro,  battle  of,  42 

Garibaldi,  conquers  Naples,  145 

Gaslight,  invention  of,  109 

George  III.  vetoes  Catholic  Emanci- 
pation, 4,  28 ;  madness  of,  59 , 
death  of,  61 

George  IV. ,  his  regency,  59  ;  accession 
of,  61  ;  quarrels  of  with  Queen 
Caroline,  63  ;  dies,  72 

Germany,  empire  of,  167  ;  See  Bis- 
marck, William  I.,  William  II.  ; 
colonies  of,  253,  254 

Ghuznee,  stormed  by  the  British,  223 

Gladstone,  William  E.,  chancellor  of 
the  exchequer,  128  ;  his  character, 
153  ;  his  budgets,  154  ;  prime 
minister,  164 ;  disestablishes  Irish 
Church,  164  ;  his  Irish  policy,  165  ; 
his  foreign  policy,  166,  167  ;  loses 
office,  170 ;  denounces  Bulgarian 
atrocities,  173 ;  returns  to  office, 
177  ;  his  second  ministry,  178-184  ; 
introduces  Home  Rule,  187  ; 
defeated,  189 ;  his  third  ministry, 
198 ;  retires,  200 ;  dies,  209 

Gooderich,  Lord,  prime  minister,  67 

Gordon,  Charles,  General,  his  defence 
of  Khartoum,  and  death,  182,  183 

Goschen,  G.,  chancellor  of  the  ex- 
chequer, converts  consols,  194 

Gough,  Hugh,  Lord,  fights  the  Sikhs, 
225,  226 


272 


INDEX. 


Greek  war  of  independence,  66,  68 ; 
war  with  Turkey,  1897,  205 

Granville,  William,  Lord,  prime 
minister,  28 

Grey,  Charles,  Lord,  leader  of  Whigs, 
73  ;  introduces  Reform  Bill,  74 ; 
carries  Reform  Bill,  78  ;  his  Poor 
Law,  86 ;  abolishes  slavery,  88  ; 
retires,  89 

Griqualand  annexed,  253 

Grouchy,  marshal,  in  Waterloo  cam- 
paign, 50 

Guzerat,  battle  of,  226 

Gwalior,  battle  of,  234 

Hanover,  electorate  of,  annexed  by 
Prussians,  24  ;  taken  by  Napoleon, 
30 ;  separated  from  England,  90  ; 
annexed  by  Bismarck,  159 

Hardinge,  Lord,  governor -general, 
225 

Hartington,  Marquis  of,  opposes 
Home  Rule,  188  ;  joins  Unionist 
government,  202 

Hastings,  Marquis  of,  Governor  - 
General  of  India,  219,  220 

Havelock,  General,  in  Persia,  141  ;  at 
Lucknow,  233 

High  Church  party,  the,  123,  125 

Hohenlinden,  battle  of,  2 

Holkar,  Jesv/unt  Rao,  wars  of,  with 
British,  216 

Holland,  English  campaigns  in,  3 ; 
given  to  Louis  Bonaparte,  27 ; 
annexed  by  Napoleon,  41  ;  restored 
to  House  of  Orange.  52  ;  separated 
from  Belgium,  73 

Holy  Alliance,  the,  65 

Home  Rule  in  Ireland,  advocated  by 
Parnell,  176,  179,  185;  first  Bill 
for,  187  ;  second  Bill  for,  198 

Hundred  Days,  the,  49-51 

Huskisson,  William,  president  of  the 
Board  of  Trade,  his  commercial 
policy,  64 ;  dismissed  by  Welling- 
ton, 68  ;  killed,  114 

Hyde  Park  riots,  the,  162 

IMI'KRIAL  federation,  its  progress, 
258-260 


Income  Tax,  orig'n  of,  96 

India,  conquests  of  Wellesley  in,  215- 
217  ;  conquests  of  Marquis  of 
Hastings  in,  219,  220  ;  Lord  Auck- 
land's wars  in,  222  223 ;  Cabul 
disaster,  223  ;  Sikh  wars,  225-227  ; 
Mutiny,  229-234  ;  East  India  Com- 
pany abolished,  234  ;  second 
Afghan  war,  235-237 ;  later  con- 
quests, 237,  238  ;  state  of  the 
Empire,  238,  239 

Inkerman,  battle  of,  i'^4 

Ionian  Islands,  the,  ceded  to  Britain, 51 

Ireland,  union  with  England,  3 ; 
O'Connell's  agitation  in,  70  ;  Catho- 
lic Emancipation  conceded,  71  ; 
Reform  Bill  lor,  78  ;  the  Tithe 
war,  89  ;  end  of  "  Repeal "  in,  95  ; 
the  Potato  Famine,  98  ;  Smith 
O'Brien's  rising,  100  ;  the  Fenians, 
160,  161  ;  Church  of,  disestablished, 
163 ;  Gladstone's  Land  Act,  164 ; 
Parnell  and  Home  Rule,  176  ;  agi- 
tation in,  178 ;  the  Phoenix  Park 
murders,  179  ;  Gladstone  adopts 
Home  Rule,  186 ;  first  Home  Rule 
Bill  rejected,  188  ;  the  Plan  of  Cam- 
paign, 190  ;  Parnell  Commission, 
195  ;  fall  of  Parnell,  196 ;  second 
Home  Rule  Bill  rejected,  198 

Isandula,  battle  of,  252 

Ismail,  Khedive  of  Egypt,  172,  180 

Italy,  annexations  of  Bonaparte  in 
II.  42;  partition  of,  in  1815,  52; 
war  of  1848  in,  103  ;  war  of  1859 
in,  144  ;  united  by  Victor  Emanuel, 
145  ;  war  of  1866  in,  159  ;  joins  the 
Triple  Alliance,  192 

Jameson,  Dr.,  his  raid,  204,  252,  253 
Java,  conquered  by  British,  218  ;  re- 
stored to  Holland,  218 
Jellalabad,  siege  of,  223,  224 
Jena,  battle  of,  30 
Johannesburg,  troubles  at,  252,  253 
Joseph    Bonaparte,    King  of   Spain. 

See  Bonaparte 
Josephine,  Empress,  divorce  of,  38 
Jubilee,   the  Queen's,  the  first,   190 ; 
the  second,  206 


INDEX. 


273 


Kaffir  wars,  the,  251 

Kent,  Edward,  Duke  of,  father  of 
Queen  Victoria,  72 

Khalifa,  the,  defeated  by  Kitchener, 
204,  207 

Khartoum,  siege  and  fall  of,  183 

Khedive.     See  Ismail  and  Tewfik 

Kilmainham  Treaty,  179 

Kitchener,  Herbert,  Lord,  his  vic- 
tories, 207 

Kriiger,  Paul,  President  of  Transvaal, 
204,  253 

Lake,  Gerald,  Lord,  his  victories  in 

India,  216 
Land    League,  the,  in  Ireland,    178, 

179 
Lawrence,  Sir  Henry,  killed  at  Luck- 
now,  233 
Lawrence,  Sir  John,  organizes    Pun- 

jaub,  227,  232 
Leipzig,  battle  of,  46 
Leopold     of     Saxe-Coburg     marries 

Princess    Charlotte,    59 ;     King   of 

Belgium,  82 
Ligny,  battle  of,  50 
Lincoln,  Abraham,  President  of  the 

United  States,  147 
Literature,    history   of  English,    118, 

121,  210 
Liverpool,  Robert  Jenkinson,  Earl  of, 

prime  minister,  42  ;  his  policy,  59, 

60  ;  takes  Canning  into  partnership, 

63 ;  retires,  67 
London,  riots  in,  60;  Reform  Bill  in, 

78  ;  Chartists  in,  loi  ;  Hyde  Park 

riots,  162 
Louis    XVIII.,    restoration    of,    48; 

expelled  by  Bonaparte,  50  ;  restored, 

52  ;  attacks  Spain,  66 
Louis     Napoleon.      See     Napoleon 

IIL 
Louis  Philippe,  king  of  the  French, 

72,  82  ;  disputes  of  England  with, 

96,  97;  dethroned,  loi,  102 
Lucknow,  besieged,  232  ;  relieved  by 

Havelock,  233 
Luddite  riots,  the,  59 
Luneville,  peace  of,  a 


Magdala,  storm  of,  159 

Mahdi,  the,  rise  of,  182 ;  wars  with, 

183 

Mahidpore,  battle  of,  220 

Mahmoud,  Sultan,  66 

Mahrattas,  subdued  by  Wellesley, 
215,  216 ;  crushed  by  Hastings, 
220 

Maiwand,  battle  of,  236 

Majuba  Hill,  battle  of,  252 

Malacca,  ceded  to  England,  240 

Malta,  captured  by  British,  8 ;  dis- 
putes concerning,  with  Bonaparte  11 

Manchester  Massacre,  the,  61 

Maori  \vars,  the,  244,  245 

Marchand,  Major,  at  Fashoda,  208 

Marmont,  Marshal,  defeated  at  Sala- 
manca, 45 

Massena,  Marshal,  in  Portugal,  39,  40 

Mauritius,  conquered  by  England,  214 

Meanee,  battle  of,  225 

Menou,  General,  conquered  in  Egypt, 

5 
Minorca,  restored  to  Spain,  8 
Moore,  Sir  John,  at  Corunna,  37 
Moscow,  burning  of,  45 
Mysore,  crushed  by  Wellesley,  9,  213 

Nana  Sahib  commits  massacre  of 
Cawnpore,  231,  232 

Napier,  Sir  Charles,  conquers  Scinde, 
224 

Napier,  Robert,  Lord,  of  Magdala, 
conquers  Abyssinia,  159 

Napoleon  I.,  his  schemes  against 
England,  2 ;  makes  peace  of  Amiens, 
7  ;  renews  war  with  Britain,  12,  13  ; 
his  invasion  scheme,  17  ;  crowned 
emperor,  19  ;  defeats  Austria  and 
Russia,  24,  25 ;  crushes  Prussia, 
29  ;  institutes  the  Continental  Sys- 
tem, 31  ;  invades  Spain,  35,  36 ;  the 
Wagram  campaign,  38  ;  his  later 
annexations,  41  ;  invades  Russia, 
44 ;  beaten  at  Leipzig,  46  ;  sent  to 
Elba,  47  ;  returns  from  exile,  49 ; 
crushed  at  Waterloo,  51 

Napoleon  III.,  President  of  the  French 
Republic,  102  ;  makes  himself  em- 
peror, 106;  joins  in  Crimean  war, 


274 


INDEX. 


130  ;   attempts  to  assassinate  him, 

142 ;    his    Italian    campaign,    145 ; 

crushed  by  Germany,  167 
Navarino,  battle  of,  68 
Nelson,  Horatio,  Lord,  wins  battle  of 

Copenhagen,  6  ;  blockades  Toulon, 

20  ;    his  last  campaign,  21,  22  ;  dies 

victorious  at  Trafalgar,  23 
Nepiul  war,  the,  219 
New  Orleans,  battle  of,  49 
New  South  Wales,   colony  of,    212 ; 

later  history  of,  241,  243 
New   Zealand, 'colonization   of,   244, 

245 
Niger  Company,  the,  257 
Nizam,  the,  a  vassal  of  the  British, 

213 
Nova  Scotia,  colony  of,  247,  249 

O'Brien,  Smith,  his  rebellion,  100 
O'Connell,  Daniel,  leads  agitation  in 

Ireland,  70,  71,  89,  92,  95 
Omdurman,  battle  of,  207 
Orders  in  Council,  the,  of  1807,  3a 
Oregon  question,  the,  246 
Orsini  question,  the,  142,  143 
Oude,  annexed,  228  ;  the  mutiny  in, 

231 
Oxford  Movement,  th«,  1*3 

Palmerston,  Henry  Temple,  Lord, 
joins  Lord  Grey's  cabinet,  'J2)  \  ^'s 
foreign  policy,  83,  104  ;  recognizes 
Napoleon  III.,  106;  dismissed 
from  office,  107 ;  returns  to  office, 
127 ;  becomes  premier,  136 ;  his 
domestic  policy,  140  ;  defeated  on 
Orsini  question,  143 ;  returns  to 
office,  144 ;  his  last  ministry, 
146-149;  dies,  151 

Paris,  taken  by  the  allies  in  1814,  46  ; 
taken  by  Wellington,  51 ;  revolutions 
in,  72,  loi,  106;  peace  of,  138; 
surrenders  to  Prussians,  167 

Parnell,  Charles  Stewart,  leads  Home 
Rule  party,  176  ;  organizes  Land 
League,  178;  makes  Kilmainham 
Treaty,  179;  his  n-'gotiations  with 
Gladstone,    186;    tried   by  Special 


Commission,     195  ;     his    fall    and 

death,  197 
Paul,     Czar    of     Russia,     allied     to 

Napoleon,  2  ;  murdered,  7 
Peel,     Sir     Robert,    home   secretary, 

64 ;     leads    Tory    party,    89,    90 ; 

prime  minister,  95  ;  his  legislation, 

96  ;  repeals  Corn    Laws,  98 ;  loses 

office,  99  ;  death  of,  107 
Peninsular  War,  the,  34-47 
Penny  Post,  the,  117 
Perceval,    Spencer,     prime   minister, 

28,  42 
Persian  war,  the,  141 
Pigott,  Richard,  his  forgeries,  195 
Pitt,  William,  retires  from  office,  4; 

returns  to  power,  18  ;  death  of,  25 
Poland,  insurrections  in,  73,  145 
Poor  Law,  the,  reformed,  85-87 
Portland,  William  Bentinck,  duke  of, 

prime  minister,  28 
Portugal,  invaded  by  Junot,  34 ;  freed 

by  British,  36.     See  Peninsular  war ; 

civil  wars  in,  66,  83 
Protectionists,  the,  99 
Prussia,  wars  of  with   Napoleon,  29, 

46,  50  ;  revolution  in,  104  ;  directed 

by  Bismarck,  146,    159,    167.       See 

also  Germany,  empire  of 
Punjaub,   the  Sikhs  in,   225  ;   British 

wars  in,  225-227 
Pusey,  Dr.  Edward,  124 
Pyrenees,  battles  of  the,  47 

Quatke-Bras,  battle  of,  50 
Quebec,  province  of,  247,  248 
Queensland,  colony  of,  242,  243 

Raglan,    Lord,  commands  in    the 

Crimea,  131-137 
Railways,  development  of,  in  Britain, 

114.  "S 
Rangoon,  taken  by  tlie  British,  228 
Reform  Bill,  the,  of  1832,  introduced 

by  Lord  John  Russell,  74  ;  rejected 

by  the  Lords,  76  ;  passed,  tj,  78 

the,  of  1866,  162 

the,  of  1884,  183 

Repeal  agitation  in  Ireland,  71,  89, 

92.  95 


INDEX. 


275 


Rhodes,  Cecil,  his  annexations  in 
South  Africa,  255,  256 

Roberts,  Frederick,  Lord,  victories  of, 
in  Afghanistan,  235,  236 

Rosebery,  Lord,  prime  minister,  200, 
201 

Rotten  boroughs,  the,  abolished,  74, 
78 

Runjit  Singh,  his  rule  in  the  Punjaub, 
225 

Russell,  Lord  John,  introduces  Re- 
form Bill,  76 ;  his  first  ministry, 
99;  quarrel  with  Palmerston,  106  ; 
loses  office,  107  ;  serves  under  Lord 
Aberdeen,  127  ;  recond  ministry  of, 
155  ;  retires  from  politics,  156 

Russia,  joins  the  Armed  Neutral.ty,  2; 
reconciled  to  Britain,  7  ;  her  wars 
with  Bonaparte,  24,  25,  30,  46 ; 
wars  of,  with  Turkey,  68,  130,  173  ; 
interference  of,  in  Hungary,  103 ; 
war  of,  wiih  England,  131-138  ;  at 
Treaty  of  Berlin,  174  ;  advance  of, 
in  Asia,  222,  235,  237  ;  her  alliance 
with  France,  192 ;  advance  of,  in 
China,  208,  209 

St.  Helena,  Napoleon  at,  51 

St.  Lucia,  ceded  to  Britain,  51 

Salamanca,  battle  of,  45 

Salisbury,  Robert  Cecil,  Marquis  of, 
opposes  Reform  Bill,  162 ;  at  Con- 
ference of  Berlin,  174 ;  prime 
minister,  189  ;  his  foreign  pohcy, 
191-193  ;  his  domestic  policy,  194  ; 
loses  office,  197  ;  second  ministry 
of,  202-210 

Sardinia,  dealings  of  Napoleon  with, 
II  ;  attacks  Austria  in  1848,  103  ; 
joins  in  Crimean  war,  137  ;  unites 
Italy,  145 

Schleswig-Holstein  question,  the,  104, 
146 

Scinde,  conquered  by  Sir  Charles 
Napier,  224 

Scindia,  war  of,  with  Wellesley,  315, 
316;  vassal  to  Britain,  220 

Scott,  Sir  Walter,  55,  119 

Sebastopol,  siege  of,  133-136 

Sedan,  battle  of,  167 


Sepoy  Mutiny,  the,  229-231 
Seringipatam,  storming  of,  215 
Shaftesbury,  Anthony,  earl  of,  philan- 
thropist, 117 
Shah  Sujah,  223,  224 
Shelley,  P,  B.,  poet,  119 
Shere  Ali,  his  war  with  the  British,  235 
Siam,  disputes  with  France  over,  205, 

238 
Sikhs,  rise  of  the,  225  ;  first  war  of, 
with  Britain,   226  ;   second  war  of, 
227 
Singapore,  foundation  of,  240 
Slavery,  abolished  in  colonies,  87,  88 
Sobraon,  battle  of,  226 
Soudan  campaigns,  the,  182,  207 
Soult,  Marshal,  defeated  at  Corunna, 
37  ;  at  Albuera,  42 ;  in  the  Pyrenees, 
47 
South  African  colonies,  history  of  the, 

250-254 
Spa  Fields  riot,  the,  60 
Spain,    allied    with    Bonaparte,    20  ; 

invaded    by     Bonaparte,     34,     35  ; 

Peninsular  war  in,  35-47  ;  civil  war 

in,  66  ;  Carlist  war  in,  83  ;  intrigues 

of  Louis  Philippe  in,  97 
Steamships,  introduction  of,  112 
Straits  Settlements,  the,  240 

Talavera,  battle  of,  39 
Tasmania,  colonization  of,  242 
Telegraph,  introduction  of  the,  118 
Tel-el-Kebir,  battle  of,  181 
Tenant-right  in  Ireland,  165 
Tennyson,  Alfred,  120 
Theodore,  King  of  Abyssinia,  159 
Thisllewood,   Arthur,   conspiracy  of, 

61 
Tilsit,  treaty  of,  30 
Titnes  newspaper,  its  litigation  with 

Parnell,  195 
Tippoo  Sultan,  wars  with,  215 
Tithe  Act,  the  Irish,  89 
Torres  Vedras.  lines  of,  39 
Toulouse,  battle  of,  47 
Tractarian  movement,  the,  124 
Trades  Unions,  history  of,  116 
Trafalgar,  battle  of,  23 
Transvaal,  the,  settled  by  Boers,  251  ; 


276 


INDEX. 


war  of,  with  Britain,  252  ;  Jameson's 

raid  on,  253 
Trent,  case  of  the,  149 
Trinidad  ceded  to  England,  8 

Uganda,  annexed,  256 
Uitlanders,  grievances  of  the,  252,  253 
Ulm,  capitulation  of,  24 
Union  with  Ireland,  the,  3 
Unionist  party,  the,  188,  189 
United  States,  war  of  1812  with,  48, 
49 ;  civil  war  in  the,  147,  148  ;  the 
Alabama    claims    of,    167  ;    inter- 
ference of,  in  Venezuela,  203 

Venezuela,  disputes  with,  203,  204 
Victor     Emanuel,     King,     joins     in 

Crimean    war,    137  ;    unites    Italy, 

145  ;  his  last  war  with  Austria,  159 
Victoria,  Queen,  accession  of,  90  ;  her 

marriage,  91  ;  her  first  jubilee,  190; 

her  second  jubilee,  206 
Victoria,  colony   of,    242 ;    goldfields 

of,  243 
Vienna,  congress  of,  48,  49 
Villeneuve,     Admiral,     defeated    by 

Nelson,  21-23 
Vimiero,  battle  off  36 
Vittoria,  battle  of,  47 
Vilu,  ceded  to  England,  255 
Volunteer  movement,  the,  144 

Wagram,  battle  of,  38 
Walcheren  expedition,  the,  38 


Waterloo,  battle  of,  50,  51 

Wellesley,  Richard,  Marquis  of,  his 
government  in  India,  213-217 

Wellington,  Arthur  Wellesley,  Duke 
of,  wins  battle  of  Assaye,  216 ; 
commands  in  Portugal,  36  ;  vic- 
torious at  Talavera,  39 ;  repels 
Mass^na,  40 ;  victorious  at  Sala- 
manca, 45  ;  invades  France,  47 ; 
wins  Waterloo,  50  ;  prime  minister, 
67 ;  his  political  failures,  68,  69 ; 
retires  from  office,  73  ;  suffers  Re- 
form Bill  to  pass,  78  ;  dies,  108 

West  Australia,  colony  of,  242 

West  Indian  colonies,  the,  87,  88, 
212,  250 

William  I.  of  Germany,  his  victories 
in  France,  167  ;  his  friendship  for 
Russia,  192 

William  II.,  Emperor  of  Germany, 
dismisses  Bismarck,  193 ;  his  an- 
nexations in  Africa,  255 

William  IV.,  accession  of,  72;  his 
dealings  with  Reform  Bill,  'j'j ; 
death,  90 

Wolseley,  Lord,  conquers  the  Zulus, 
252 ;  conquers  Egypt,  181 ;  in  the 
Soudan, 183 

Wordsworth,  William,  poet,  119,  121 

Young  Ireland  party,  the,  100 

Zanzibar,  annexation  of*  355 
Zulu  war,  the,  351 


FINIS. 


A   LIST   OF 

WORKS    IN     HISTORY 

PUBLISHED    BY 

LONGMANS,   GREEN,   &    CO. 

91   AND  93  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York. 


AMERICAN    HISTORY. 

EPOCHS  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY. 

Edited  by  Albert  Bushnell  Hart,  Ph.D.,  Professor  of   History  in 
Harvard  University. 

The  aim  of  this  Series  is  not  to  assemble  all  the  important  facts  in  the 
History  of  the  United  States,  or  to  discuss  all  the  important  questions 
that  have  arisen,  but  to  present  a  succession  of  brief  works  which  shall 
show  the  main  causes  for  the  foundation  of  the  colonies,  for  the  formation 
of  the  Union,  and  for  the  triumph  of  that  Union  over  disintegrating 
tendencies.  To  make  clear  the  development  of  ideas  and  institutions 
from  epoch  to  epoch — this  is  the  aim  of  the  authors  and  the  editor. 
Detail  has  therefore  been  sacrificed  to  a  more  thorough  treatment  of  the 
broad  outlines:  events  are  considered  as  evidences  of  tendencies  and  prin- 
ciples. Recognizing  the  fact  that  many  readers  will  wish  to  go  more  care- 
fully into  narrative  and  social  history,  each  chapter  throughout  the  Series  is 
provided  with  a  bibliography,  intended  to  lead,  first  to  the  more  common 
and  easily  accessible  books,  afterward,  through  the  list  of  bibliographies 
by  other  hands,  to  special  works  and  monographs.  The  reader  or  teacher 
will  find  a  select  list  of  books  in  the  Suggestions  in  each  volume. 
The  historical  geography  of  the  United  States  has  been  a  much- 
neglected  subject.  In  this  Series,  therefore,  both  physical  and  political 
geography  has  received  special  attention.  Colonial  grants  were  confused 
and  uncertain;  the  principle  adopted  in  preparing  the  maps  for  the  Series 
has  been  to  accept  the  later  interpretation  of  the  grants  by  the  English 
Government  as  settling  earlier  questions. 

The  volumes  of  this  Series  are  widely  used  as  text-books  throughout 
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Schools  as  well  as  in  Colleges.  The  following  is  a  partial  list  of  Institutions 
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vania State  University;  University  of  California;  Johns  Hopkins  University; 
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of  Minneapolis,  Minn.;  Worcester,  INIass.;  St.  Cloud,  Minn.;  State  Normal 
Schools  of  Winona,  Minn. ;  River  Falls,  Minn. ;  and  many  others. 


Longmans,  Green,  &-  Go's  Publications. 


Epochs  of  American  History — Continued, 
The  Colonies,  1492=1750. 

By  Reuben  Gold  Thwaites,  Secretary  of  the  State  Historical  Society 
of  Wisconsin;  editor  of  the  Wisconsin  Historical  Collections;  author  of 
"  Historic  Waterways,"  "  The  Story  of  Wisconsin,"  etc.  With  4  col- 
ored Maps,  321  pages.      i2mo,  cloth.     $1.25. 

Professor  Moses   Coit  Tyler, 


Cornell  University,  Ithaca,  N.  Y 
"  I  am  pleased,  as  every  one  must 
be,  with  the  mechanical  execution  of 
the  book,  with  the  maps,  and  with 
the  fresh  and  valuable  '  Suggestions  ' 
and '  References.'  .  .  .  The  work 
itself  appears  to  me  to  be  quite  re- 
markable for  its  comprehensiveness, 
and  it  presents  a  vast  array  of  sub- 
jects in  a  way  that  is  admirably  fair, 
clear  and  orderly." 

The  Nation, NewYork:— "The 

subject   is  virtually  a   fresh  one  as 


approached  by  Mr.  Thwaites.  It  is 
a  pleasure  to  call  especial  attention 
to  some  most  helpful  bibliographical 
notes  provided  at  the  head  of  each 
chapter." 

Boston  Advertiser: — "  So  brief 
and  so  thoroughly  arranged  is  it 
that  it  may  almost  be  regarded  as 
a  compendium  of  early  American 
history." 

London  Guardian : — "The  most 
satisfactory  account  of  the  coloniza- 
tion of  North  America,  on  a  small 
scale,  that  we  possess." 


II.   Formation  of  the  Union,  1750=1829. 

By  Albert  Bushnell  Hart,  A.B.,  Ph.D.,  Professor  of  History  in 
Harvard  University;  member  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society; 
author  of  "  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Federal  Government,"  "  Prac- 
tical Essays  on  American  Government,"  etc.  With  5  colored  Maps,  298 
pages,     i2mo,  cloth.     $1.25. 


Independent: — "It  is  really  an 
elementary  philosophy  of  the  found- 
ing of  the  United  States,  relieved, 
however,  of  the  abstruse  and  forbid- 
ding form  of  bitter  speculation  un- 
der which  such  philosophies  are  too 
often  born." 

Professor  H.  von  Hoist,  in  the 
Educational  Kevieiv  : — "The  book 
really  is  a  book — no  piece  and  patch- 
work— but  cut  of  whole  cloth.  The 
thoughtful  reader's  interest  is  never 
allowed  to  flag  for  a  moment,  ,  ,  , 
He  learns  much  more  than  the  mere 
facts,  for  they  are  put  forth  in  their 
relation  of  cause  and  effect  with  such 
lucidity  that  they  are  pregnant  with 
all  the  suggestive  force  of  an  evolu- 
tionary process,     .     ,      ." 

School  Review :  —  "  Professor 
Hart  writes  with  a  vigor  and  assur- 


ance which  show  how  completely  he 
has  mastered  the  data  and  caught 
the  spirit  of  the  time  which  produced 
a  Federal  Constitution," 

Mary  Sheldon  Barnes,  Leland 
Stanford  Jr.  University,  Palo  Alto, 
Cal, :  —  "The  large  and  sweeping 
treatment  of  the  subject,  which  shows 
the  true  relations  of  the  events  pre- 
ceding and  following  the  revolution, 
to  the  revolution  itself,  is  a  real  ad- 
dition to  the  literature  of  the  subject; 
while  the  bibliography  prefixed  to 
each  chapter,  adds  incalculably  to  the 
value  of  the  work." 

Boston  Transcript: — "It  is  a 

careful  and  conscientious  study  of 
the  period  and  its  events,  and  should 
find  a  place  among  the  text-books  of 
our  public  schools," 


Longmans,  Green,  &-  Go's  Publications. 


Epochs  of  American  History — Concluded* 
III.  Division  and  Reunion,  1829=1889. 

By  WooDROW  Wilson,  Ph.D.,  LL.D.,  Professor  of  Jurisprudence  and 
Political  Economy  in  Princeton  University;  author  of  "Congressional 
Government,"  "The  State — Elements  of  Historical  and  Practical 
Politics,"  etc.    With  5  colored  Maps,  345  pages.    i2mo,  cloth.    $1.25. 


Theodore     Roosevelt,    in    the 

Educational  Review  : — "Among  the 
best  of     .     .     .     recent  manuals." 

John  Fiske  : — "  It  seems  to  me 
one  of  the  best  text-books  I  have 
seen,  and  it  is  very  interesting." 

The  New  York  Sun  :— "  The 
most  useful  hand-book  of  political 
history  which  has  been  issued  since 
the  Civil  War." 

Atlantic  Monthly: — "Consid- 
ered as  a  general  history  of  the 
United  States  from  1829  to  1889, 
his  book  is  marked  by  excellent  sense 
of  proportion,  extensive  knowledge, 
impartiality  of  judgment,  unusual 
power  of  summarizing,  and  an  acute 
political  sense.  Few  writers  can 
more  vividly  set  forth  the  views  of 
parties." 


New  York  Times  : — "  Students 
of  United  States  history  may  thank 
Mr.  Wilson  for  an  extremely  clear 
and  careful  rendering  of  a  period 
very  difficult  to  handle  .  .  .  they 
will  find  themselves  materially  aided 
in  easy  comprehension  of  the  politi- 
cal situation  of  the  country  by  the 
excellent  maps." 

Yale  Review  : — "  Professor  Wil- 
son writes  in  a  clear  and  forcible 
style.  .  .  .  The  bibliographical 
references  at  the  head  of  each  chap- 
ter are  both  well  selected  and  well 
arranged,  and  add  greatly  to  the 
value  of  the  work,  which  appears  to 
be  especially  designed  for  use  in 
instruction  in  colleges  and  prepara- 
tory schools." 


Epoch  Maps  Illustrating  American  History. 

By  Albert  Bushnell  Hart,  Ph.D.      14  colored  Maps,  oblong  4to 
limp  cloth.     $0.50  net. 

List  of  Maps. 

No. 
9 


No. 
I. 


Physical  Features  of  the  United 
States  of  America. 

2.  North  America,  1650. 

3.  English  Colonies,  1700, 

4.  North  America,  1750. 

5.  English  Colonies,  1763-1775. 

6.  The  United  States,  1783. 

7.  Territorial  Growth  of  the  United 

States  of  America,  1783-1866. 

8.  Status  of  Slavery  in  the  United 

States,  1775-1865. 

*i^  A  prospectus  desci-ibin^  the  special  features  of  the  Atlas,  with  a  sped 
men  map,  ?nay  be  had  on  application. 


13. 
14. 


The    United    States,    March   4, 

1801. 
The    United    States,    March   4, 

1825. 
Territorial  Controversies  Settled 

by   the    United    States,   1840- 

1850. 
The    United    States,    March   4, 

1855. 
The  United  States,  July  4,  1861. 
The    United    States,    March   4, 

1891. 


Longmans,  Green,  6r  Go's  Publications. 

Brookings  and  Ringwalt — Briefs  for  Debate  on  Current 
Political,  Economic,  and  Social  Topics. 

Edited  by  W.  DuBois  Brookings,  A.B.,  of  the  Harvard  Law  School, 
and  Ralph  Curtis  Ringwalt,  A.B.,  Assistant  in  Rhetoric  in  Colum- 
bia University.  With  an  Introduction  on  "The  Art  of  Debate,"  by 
Albert  Bushnell  Hart,  Ph.D.,  of  Harvard  University.  Crown  8vo, 
with  Full  Index.     260  pages.     $1.25. 

Many  phases  of  current  historical  moment  are  touched  upon  in  this  work, 
and  it  is  therefore  included  here,  although  not  a  text-book  of  history.  It  is 
in  use  as  a  text-book  in  Harvard  University,  Columbia  University,  University 
of  Michigan,  University  of  Pennsylvania,  Colgate  University,  Oberlin  Col- 
lege, and  many  other  institutions. 

In  preparing  this  volume  the  editors  have  had  a  three-fojd  object  in  view. 
They  have  aimed  :  (1)  to  furnish  a  text-book  for  formal  courses  in  public 
speaking  and  discussion  ;  (2)  to  provide  a  manual  for  literary  and  debating 
societies  ;  and  (3)  to  give  the  ordinary  worker,  not  a  specialist  in  the  subjects 
treated,  suggestions  and  assistance.  It  states  concisely  the  principal  argu- 
ments, pro  and  avi,  on  a  large  number  of  the  important  topics  of  the  day  ; 
presents  working  bibliographies  on  these  topics  ;  gives  examples  of  logical 
statement,  and  may  suggest  a  systematic  method  for  the  treatment  of  other 
topics. — Extract  from  Preface. 


C.  K.  Bolton,  Librarian,  Public 
Library,  Brookline,  Mass. : — "  I  can- 
not resist  telling  you  that  '  Briefs  for 
Debate '  has  proved  itself  to  be  one 
of  the  most  useful  books  in  the  li- 
brary. We  use  it  constantly  in  con- 
nection with  the  High  School  work." 

Citizen,  Philadelphia  :  —  "  The 
work  is  a  model  of  its  kind,  and  will 


prove  invaluable  to  the  trained  de- 
bater and  to  the  specialist  as  well  as 
to  the  novice." 

Dial,  Chicago: — "A  book  which 
will  be  found  useful  by  members  of 
literary  societies,  and  will  also  prove 
a  helpful  adjunct  to  the  work  of  the 
teacher  of  rhetoric." 


Follett — The  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives, 

By  M.  P.  Follett.  With  an  Introduction  by  Albert  Bushnell 
Hart,  Ph.D.  Crown  Svo,  with  Appendices  and  Index.  404  pages. 
$1.75. 

Contents:  I.  Genesis  of  the  Speaker's  Power.  II.  Choice  of 
THE  Speaker.  III.  The  Personal  Element  of  the  Speaker- 
ship. IV.  The  Speaker's  Parliamentary  Prerogatives.  V.  The 
Speaker's  Vote.  VI.  Maintenance  of  Order.  VII.  Dealing 
with  Obstruction.  VIII.  Power  through  the  Committee 
System.  IX.  Power  through  Recognition.  X.  Power  as  a 
Political  Leader.  XL  The  Speaker's  Place  in  our  Political 
System. — Appendices. — Index. 


Theodore  Roosevelt,  in  the 
American  Historical  Kcvieio  : — 
"Miss  M.  p.  Follett  .  .  .  has 
made  a  really  notable  contribution 
to  the  study  of  the  growth  of  Amer- 


ican governmental  institutions  .  .  . 
with  a  thoroughness  ruul  philosophic 
grasp  of  her  subject  that  will  make  her 
book  indispensable  to  every  future  stu- 
dent of  Congressional  government." 


Longmans,  Green,  &-  Co*s  Puhlication^, 

^ < 

HARVARD  HISTORICAL  STUDIES, 

Published  under  the  directioi  of  the  Depart)}ie7it  of  History  and  Govern- 
ment, from  the  income  of  the  Henry  Warren  Torrey  Fund. 
This  Series  will  comprise  works  of  original  research,  selected  from  the  recent 
writings  of  teachers  and  graduate  students  in  the  Department  of  History 
and  Government  in  Harvard  University.  The  Series  will  also  include 
collections  of  documents,  bibliographies,  reprints  of  rare  tracts,  etc.  The 
monographs  will  appear  at  irregular  intervals  ;  but  it  is  hoped  that  three 
volumes  will  be  published  annually. 

The  volumes  of  the  Series  already  published  are  : 

1.  The  Suppression  of  the  African  5Iave=Trade  to  the 

United  States  of  America,  1638=1870. 

By  W.  E.  B.  Du  Bois,   Ph.D.,   Professor   in  Wilberforce   University. 
Large  8vo,  346  pages.     N'et  $1.50. 

2.  The  Contest  over  the  Ratification  of  the  Federal  Con- 

stitution in  the  State  of  Massachusetts. 

By  S.  B.  Harding,  A.M..  Assistant  Professor  of  History  in  Indiana 
University.     Large  8vo,  202  pages.     Net%\.2^. 

3.  A  Critical  Study  of  Nullification  in  South  Carolina. 

By  D.  Y.  Houston,  A.M.,  Adjunct  Professor  of  Political  Science  in 
the  University  of  Texas.      Large  Svo,  178  pages.      .\\7$i.25. 

4.  Nominations  for  Elective  Office  in  the  United  States. 

By  Frederick  W.  Dallinger,  A.M.,  Member  of  the  Massachusetts 
Senate,  etc.     Large  Svo,  204  pages.     Net%\.^Q. 


Journal,  Boston: — "Mr.Dalhnger 
has  brought  to  the  task,  not  only  a 
marked  talent  for  research,  and  for 
the  handling  of  data,  but  a  singularly 
consistent     non-partisan     attitude, 


which  gives  his  book  genuine  scien- 
tific value.  .  .  .  It  is  of  interest 
to  all  who  are  concerned  in  good  gov- 
ernment, and  is  to  be  commended  for 
its  impartiality  and  thoroughness." 

5.  A  Bibliography  of  British  Municipal  History,  including 

Gilds  and  Parliamentary  Representation. 

Ey  Charles  Gross,  Ph.D.,  Assistant  Professor  of  History  in  Harvard 
University.     Large  8vo,  495  pages.     N'et  %2..^o. 

6.  The  Liberty  and  Free  Soil  Parties  in  the  Northwest. 

By  Theodore  C.  Smith,  Ph.D.,  Instructor  in  the  University  of  Mich- 
igan.    Large  Svo,  362  pages.     A^^^$i.75. 

7.  The  American   Provincial    Governor    in   the    English 

Colonies  of  North  America. 

By  EvARTS  BouTELL  Greene,  Professor  of  History  in  the  University 
of  Illinois.     8vo.     iV^/$i.50. 

8.  The  County  Palatine  of  Durham.     A  Study  in  Con- 

stitutional History. 

By  Gaillard  Thomas  Lapsley,  Ph.D.     Svo.     A^^^$2.oo.     \_Shortly. 


Longmans,  Green,  &-  Go's  Publications. 


ENGLISH   HISTORY   AND   GOVERNMENT. 


Gardiner— A  Student's  History  of  England. 

From  the  Earliest  Times  to  1885.  By  Samuel  Rawson  Gardiner, 
M.A.,  LL.D.  Illustrated  under  the  superintendence  of  Mr.  St.  John 
Hope,  Secretary  to  the  Society  of  Antiquaries.  Complete  in  one 
volume.  With  378  Illustrations  and  full  Index.  Crown  8vo,  cloth, 
plain.     1095  pages.     $3.00.* 

Or  separately: 

Vol.      I.  B.C.  55-A.D.  1509.     With  173  Illustrations  and  Index.  $1.20* 

Vol.     II.   1509-1689.     With  96  Illustrations  and  Index.  1.20* 

Vol.  III.   1689-18S5.     With  109  Illustrations  and  Index.  1.20* 


%*  "  '  Gardiner's  Student's  History  of  England,'  through  Part  IX,,  will 
serve  to  indicate  the  amount  of  knowledge  demanded  for  entrance  to  college 
in  English  history," 

[Extract  from  T//e^  Harvard  University  Cataloguei\ 

Professor     Henry     Ferguson, 

Trmity  College,  Hartford: — "  It  is, 
in  my  opinion,   by  far  the  best  ad 


vanced  school  history  of  England 
that  I  have  ever  seen.  It  is  clear, 
concise,  and  scientific,  and,  at  the 
same  time,  attractive  and  interesting. 
The  illustrations  are  very  good  and 
a  valuable  addition  to  the  book,  as 
they  are  not  mere  pretty  pictures, 
but  of  real  .historical  and  archaeo- 
logical interest." 

The  Nation,  New  York: — "A 
unique  feature  consists  of  the  very 
numerous  illustrations.  They  throw 
light  on  almost  every  phase  of  Eng- 
lish life  in  all  ages.  .  .  .  Never, 
perhaps,  in  such  a  treatise  has  pic- 
torial illustration  been  used  with  so 
good  effect.  The  alert  teacher  will 
find  here  ample  material  for  useful 
lessons  by  leading  the  pupil  to  draw 
the  proper  inferences  and  make  the 
proper  interpretations  and  compari- 
sons. .  .  .  The  style  is  compact, 
vigorous,  and  interesting.  There  is 
no  lack  of  precision;  and,  in  the 
selection  of  the  details,  the  hand  of 


the  scholar  thoroughly  conversant 
with  the  source  and  with  the  results  of 
recent  criticism  is  plainly  revealed." 


The  Churchman,  New  York: — 
"  It  is  illustrated  by  pictures  of  real 
value;  and  when  accompanied  by  the 
companion  '  Atlas  of  English  His- 
tory '  is  all  that  need  be  desired  for 
its  special  purpose." 

Critic,  New  York: — "If  we  do 
not  greatly  mistake,  this  History  of 
England  will  supplant  all  others  used 
as  text-books  in  schools  and  colleges. 
The  name  of  the  author  .  .  . 
would  prepossess  anyone  in  its  favor, 
and  a  perusal  of  its  pages  only 
accentuates  the  feeling  that  here  at 
last  we  have  an  accurate,  succinct, 
and  entertaining  book,  fit  for  schools 
as  well  as  for  the  general  reader.  .  .  . 
The  illustrations,  a  notable  feature, 
.  .  .  are  not  the  old-fashioned  and 
hackneyed  ones  to  be  found  in  most 
so-called  illustrated  histories;  .  .  . 
they  are  illustrative  of  the  text  and 
afford  an  excellent  study  in  the 
manners  of  the  times." 

*^*  A  prospectus  and  specimen  pages  of  Gardiner's  "  Student'' s  History  of 
England  "  will  be  sent  on  application. 


Longmans,  Green,  &-  Co' s  Publications. 


Gardiner — An  Atlas  of  English  History. 

Edited  by  Samuel  Rawsox   Gardiner,  M.A.,  LL.D.     66  colored 
Maps,  22  Plans  of  Battles,  etc.,  and  full  Index.     A  companion  Atlas 
to  Gardiner's  "  Student's  History  of  England."     Fcap.  4to.     $1.50.* 
This  Atlas  is  intended  to  serve  as  a  companion  to  Mr.  S.  R.  Gardiner's 
"  Student's  History  of  England."     In  addition  to  the  historical  maps  of  the 
British  Isles,  in  whole  or  in  part,  are  others  of  Continental  countries  or  dis- 
tricts which  were  the  scenes  of  events  connected  morp  or  less  closely  with 
English    history  ;  and  a  series  of  plans  of  important  battles  and  sieges  is 
also  provided. 


Professor  Edward    Channing-, 

Harvard  University,  Cambridge, 
Mass. : — "For  S.  R.  Gardiner's  Atlas 
I  have  nothing  but  praise.  The 
maps  contain  precisely  the  informa- 
tion a  student  most  desires.  They 
are  well  executed,  and  the  Index 
leaves  little  to  be  desired." 

Professor  Henry  Ferguson, 
Trinity  College,  Hartford,  Conn.: — 
"  It  is  a  very  real  pleasure  to  be  able 
to  express  one's  opinion  about  a 
work  as  well  conceived,  as  carefully 
prepared,  and  beautifully  executed, 
as  this  is.  It  will  be  of  the  greatest 
use  to  students  of  English  history, 
and  I  shall  be  glad  to  recommend  it 
most  earnestly." 

Professor  Charles  F.  Richard- 
son,  Dartmouth  College,  Hanover, 


N.  II.: — "  Gardiner's  'Atlas  of  Eng- 
lish History'  is  altogether  the  best 
volume  of  the  sort." 

Professor  Eleanor  L.  Lord, 
Smith  College,  Northampton,  Mass.: 
— "  ...  It  seems  to  me  ad- 
mirable and  comprehensive,  yet  free 
from  that  confusion  which  comes 
from  over- crowding  maps  with 
names.  I  am  sure  that  all  teachers 
and  students,  not  only  of  English 
but  also  of  European  history,  will 
find  the  atlas  of  the  greatest  value. 
I  shall  cordially  recommend  it  to  my 
own  classes." 

Professor  Richard  Hudson,Uni- 
versity  of  Michigan,  Ann  Arbor, 
Mich.: — "  ...  It  has  already 
been  recommended  to  our  classes  in 
English  history." 


Preparatory  Questions  on  Gardiner's  Student's  History 
of  England. 

By    R.    Somervell,    M.A.,    Assistant    Master    of    Harrow    School. 
i2mo.     62  pages,     $0.35.* 


Prof.  S.  B.  Harding,  Indiana 
University,  Bloomington,  Ind.: 
"  The  work  is  well   done,  and   the 


book  should  prove  a  successful  aid 
to  young  students." 


Warner — English  History  in  Shakspeare's  Plays. 

By  Rev.  Beverley  E.  Warner.     Crown  Svo,  331  pages.     $1.75. 

In  use  as  a  text-book  in  Sophie  Newcomb  College,  New  Orleans,  La. ; 
Kenyon  College,  Gambler,  Ohio;  Center  College,  Danville,  Ky. ;  and  other 
institutions. 

A  work  of  great  value  to  the  student  of  history,  showing  what  an  aid  to 
the  understanding  of  certain  important  phases  of  England's  national  devel- 
opment lies  in  these  historical  plays,  which  cover  a  period  of  three  hundred 
years — from  King  John  to  Henry  VIII. 


Longmans,  Green,  &-  Co^s  Publications. 


Higginson  and  Channing — English  History  for  Ameri- 
cans. 

By  Thomas  Wentworth  Higginson,  Author  of  "Young  Folks'  Hist- 
ory of  the  United  States,"  etc.,  and  Edward  Channing,  Assistant 
Professor  of  History  in  Harvard  University.  "With  77  Illustrations, 
6  colored  Maps,  Bibliography,  a  Chronological  Table  of  Contents,  and 
Index.     i2mo.     366  pages.     $1.20.* 

The  name  "English  History  for  Americans,"  which  suggests  the  key- 
note of  this  book,  is  based  on  the  simple  fact  that  it  is  not  the  practice  of 
American  readers,  old  or  young,  to  give  to  English  history  more  than  a 
limited  portion  of  their  hours  of  study.  ...  It  seems  clear  that  such  readers 
will  use  their  time  to  the  best  advantage  if  they  devote  it  mainly  to  those 
events  in  English  annals  which  have  had  the  most  direct  influence  on  the 
history  and  institutions  of  their  own  land.  .  .  .  The  authors  of  this  book 
have  therefore  boldly  ventured  to  modify  in  their  narrative  the  accustomed 
scale  of  proportion  ;  while  it  has  been  their  wish,  in  the  treatment  of  every 
detail,  to  accept  the  best  result  of  modern  English  investigation,  and 
especially  to  avoid  all  unfair  or  one-sided  judgments.   .   .   . 

— Extract  frOxM  Authors'  Preface. 

Recent  school  adoptions  of  this  book  are  the  following  :  State  Normal 
School,  North  Adams,  Mass.;  Glenwood  Collegiate  Institute,  Matawan,  N.J.; 
John  B.  Diman's  School,  Newport,  R.  I.;  High  School,  Adams,  Mass.; 
Public  Schools,  Long  Branch,  N.  J.;  Public  Schools, Warren,  R,  I.;  Penn- 
sylvania Institute  for  Deaf  and  Dumb,  Philadelphia,  Pa.;  Public  Schools, 
West  Grove,  Pa.;  Dickinson  Seminary,  Williamsport,  Pa.;  Packer  Institute, 
Brooklyn,  N.  Y.;  New  Church  School,  Waltham,  Mass.;  Public  Schools, 
Dedham,  Mass.;  Pierre  University,  E.  Pierre,  S.  Dak.;  North  Yarmouth 
Academy,  Yarmouth,  Me.;  High  School,  Belmont,  Mass.;  Summit  Acad- 
emy, Summit,  N.  J.;  Pingiy  School,  Elizabeth,  N.  J.;  Ohio  Institute  for 
Deaf  and  Dumb,  Columbus,  Ohio;  Free  Academy,  Utica,  N.  Y. ;  Temple 
College,  Philadelphia,  Pa.;  Roxbury  Latin  School,  Roxbury,  Mass.;  Public 
Schools,  Brooklyn,  N.Y.;  Clifton  School,  Cincinnati,  Ohio;  State  Normal 
School,  Bloomsburg,  Pa.,  etc. 

*^  A  prospectus  shotving general  scope  of  the  work^  specimen  paoes^  etc., 
will  be  sent  to  any  address  upon  request. 

Francis  Parkman  :  —  "  Your 
book  will  tend  to  make  boys  and 
girls  understand  that  England  and 
America  are  not  natural  enemies,  but 
natural  friends,  in  spite  of  follies  on 
both  sides.  It  will  also  counteract 
the  French  tendency  to  cut  loose 
from  the  past  and  launch  on  a  sea  of 
theories  and  generalities,  forgetting 
that  past,  present,  and  future  are 
joined  in  every  sound  political  growth, 
and  that  we  can  learn  much  from  the 
successes  and  failures  of  our  fathers." 


Dr.  W.  T.  Harris,  U.  S.  Com- 
missioner of  Education  : — "  I  believe 
it  to  be  the  best  introduction  to  Eng- 
lish history  hitherto  made  for  the  use 
of  schools.  It  is  just  what  is  needed 
in  the  school  and  in  the  family.  It 
is  the  first  history  of  England  that  I 
have  seen  which  gives  proper  atten- 
tion to  sociology  and  the  evolution 
of  political  ideas,  without  neglecting 
what  is  picturesque  and  interesting 
to  the  popular  taste." 


Longmans,  Green,  &  Co's  Publications, 
Ransome — A  Short  History  of  England. 

From  the  Earliest  Times  to  the  Present  Day.  With  Tables,  Maps, 
Plans,  Index,  etc.,  etc.,  by  Cyril  Ransome,  M.A.  Crown  8vo. 
518  pages.     $1.50. 

FROM    THE   PREFACE. 

The  aim  of  this  History  of  England  is  to  give  a  short  narrative  of 
the  growth  of  the  British  Empire  and  the  Constitution  from  the 
earliest  times  to  the  present  day,  and  to  give  a  clear  and  intelligible 
account  of  those  events  and  institutions  a  knowledge  of  which  is  so 
much  needed  by  the  student  of  modern  political  life. 

To  attain  these  ends  within  the  space  of  450  pages  has  been  a 
most  difficult  task,  and  a  rigid  censorship  has  been  needed,  both  in 
choosing  the  subjects  and  events  to  be  mentioned,  and  in  allotting 
an  appropriate  space  to  each. 

Everywhere  I  have  been  guided  by  what  I  have  learnt,  as  a  prac- 
tical teacher,  of  the  difficulties  which  most  readers  find  hardest  to 
surmount,  and  I  have  tried  to  bear  in  mind  that  the  object  of  teach- 
ing history  is  not  to  cram  with  facts  and  dates  (useful  and  indeed 
necessary,  as  these  are),  but  to  awaken  thought,  and  especially  to 
teach  the  habit  of  thinking  intelligently  about  political  events. 

The  history  is  divided  into  nine  books,  according  to  dynasties, 
and  each  chapter  contains,  as  a  rule,  the  reign  of  one  king.  At  the 
beginning  of  each  book  are  placed  genealogies  of  the  royal  families, 
and  pedigrees  to  illustrate  special  points  are  given  in  the  notes.  At 
the  head  of  each  reign  is  a  list  of  notable  characters  to  whom  atten- 
tion is  to  be  directed.  Numerous  maps  and  plans  are  given,  with 
tables  of  the  chief  events,  and  a  complete  analysis  is  provided  by 
the  table  of  contents.  The  style  aims  at  being  simple  but  not 
childish. 


Prof.  S.  B.  Harding,  Univ.  of 

Indiana,  Bloomington,  Ind.: — "I 
used  Ransome's  Short  History  of 
England  with  a  class  in  our  summer 
school  last  year,  and  found  it  one  of 
the  most  satisfactory  historical  text- 
books that  it  has  ever  been  my  for- 
tune to  use.  Clearness  of  statement, 
accuracy  as  to  facts,  and  the  preser- 
vation of  a  proper  perspective  are 
among  the  book's  good  points." 


Miss  Mary  P.  Frye,  Dept.  of 
History,  High  School,  Brookline, 
Mass.  :  —  "  Ransome's  England 
stands  the  test  of  use.  Next  year 
more  of  them  will  be  used." 

Miss  Anna  C.  Marston,  Dobbs 
Ferry,  N.  Y.: — "  I  have  used  Ran- 
some's History  of  England  this  year 
and  I  am  much  pleased  with  it.  It 
proves  to  be  just  the  book  I  need 
for  the  students  who  study  English 
History.     I   shall  continue  its  use." 


Longmans,  Green,  &-  Go's  PiMicatiom, 

Airy — A  Text = Book  of  English  History  from  the  Earliest 
Times. 

For   Colleges   and   Schools.      By   Osmond    Airy,   Author  of    "  The 
English    Restoration    and    Louis    XIV."     With  i6   Maps    and    a    full 
Index.      i2mo.      568  pages.     $1.50. 
Among  recent  school  adoptions  of  this  book  are  the  following:    Central 

Normal  College,  Waddy,  Ky. ;  Columbian  University,  Washington,  D.  C; 

Olivet  College,  Olivet,  Mich.;   Packer  Institute,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.;  Teachers' 

College,  N.  Y.   City;    The    Misses  Masters'  School.   Dobbs   Ferry,  N.  Y.; 

Albion  College,  Albion,  Mich.;  Yale  University,  New  Haven,  Conn.;  and 

others. 


Professor  Charles  C.  Swisher, 

The  Columbian  University,  Wash- 
ington, D.  C: — "  I  have  found  it 
well  adapted  for  undergraduate 
work." 

F.  G.  Bates,  Alfred    University, 
Alfred,  N.  Y.: — "  In  Airy's  History 


I  find  a  book  adapted  to  those  stu- 
dents desiring  to  gain  a  comprehen- 
sive view  of  English  history  in  a 
limited  space  of  time.  The  summary 
of  leading  facts,  and  the  chronolog- 
ical table  of  treaties,  statutes  and 
charters  will  prove  valuable  aids  to 
the  student." 


Armitage — The  Childhood  of  the  English  Nation; 

Or,  The    Beginnings   of    English    History.     By  Ella    S.  Armitage. 
Third  Edition.     i2mo.     259  pages.     $0.80.* 

Bright — A  History  of  England. 

By  the  Rev.  J.  Franck  Bright,  D.D.,  Master  of  University  College, 

Oxford. 

Period   I. — Medi/EVAL  Monarchy:    The   Departure  of   the   Romans 

to  Richard  III.     From  A.D.  449  to  14S5.      i2mo.     426  pages,     $1.50. 

Period  II. — Personal  Monarchy:   Henry  VII.  to  James  II.     From 

1485  to  1688.      i2mo.     478  pages.     $1.75. 

Period    III. — Constitutional    Monarchy  :    William   and    Mary   to 

William  IV.      From  1689  to  1837.      i2mo.     693  pages.     $1.75. 

Period  IV. — The  Growth  of  Democracy:  Victoria.     From  1837  to 

1880.      i2mo.     618  pages.     $1.75. 

Creighton — Elementary  History  of  England. 

Being  an  introductory  volume  to  the   "  Epochs  of  English  History." 
By   the   Rt.    Rev.    Mandell    Creighton,    D.D.,    Lord    Bishop    of 
London.      i2mo.      139  pages.     $0.30.* 
One   of   the   best    primers    of    English    history,    readable,  accurate,  and 
unusually  comprehensive. 

Creighton — A  First  History  of  England. 

With  numerous  Illustrations.     By  Louise  Creighton  (Mrs.  Mandell 
Creighton).     i6mo.     400  pages.     $0.80.* 


Lommans,  Green,  &-  Go's  Publications, 


Powell  and  Tout — History  of  England. 

For  the   Use  of   Schools.     By  F.  York    Powell,  M.A.,  and   T.  F. 

Tout,  M.A.  In  three  Parts.  With  Maps  and  Plans. 
The  completion  of  this  series  provides  a  work  which  covers  Eno^lish  History 
rather  more  fully  than  most  other  students'  histories.  It  contains  more 
detail  and  is  especially  strong  in  the  treatment  of  the  social  life  of  the 
people,  and  of  the  growth  of  the  language  and  literature.  The  volumes  are 
illustrated  with  37  maps  and  plans. 

Part  I.     From  the  Earliest  Times  to  the  Death  of  Henry  VII.     By  F. 

York  Powell,  M.A.     i2mo.     388  pages.     $1.00. 

Part  II.     From  the  Death  of  Henry  VII,  to  the  Accession  of  William 

and  Mary.      i2mo.     390  pages.     $1.00. 

Part  III.     William  and  Mary  to  the  Present  Time.     By  T.  F.  Tout, 

M.A.      i2mo.     359  pages.     $1.00. 

Simple  Stories  from  English  History. 

A  First  History  for  Lower  Forms.'  With  6  Illustrations  in  Colors  and 
55  in  Black  and  White.      i2mo.      igg  pages.     $0.50. 

Symes — A  Companion  to  School   Histories  of  England. 

Being  a  Series  of  Short  Essays  on  the  Most  Important  Movements, 
Social,  Literary,  and  Political,  in  English  History.  By  J.  E.  Symes, 
M.A.,  University  College,  Nottingham.      i2mo.      254  pages.     $1.00, 

EPOCHS  OF  ENGLISH   HISTORY. 

Edited  by  the  Right  Rev.   Mandell  Creighiox,  D.D.,  Lord    Bishop 
of  London.     With  Maps  and  Tables.      i6mo. 

1.  Early  England.  Up  to  the  5.  The  Struggle  Against  Abso= 
Norman  Conquest.  By  Frederick  lute  Monarchy,  1603=1688.  By 
York  Powell.  With  4  Maps.  Mrs.  S.  R.  Gardiner,  With  2 
$0.30.*  Maps.     $0.30.* 

^       ,  .  ,      6.  The  Settlement  of  the  Con= 

2.  England  a  Continental  stitution,  1639=1784.  By  James 
Power.       from    the    Conquest    to       Rowley,     ALA.      With    4     Maps. 


Magna    Charta,    1066-1216.       By 


.30. 


Louise  Creighton.     With  a  Map.  ^^  England  During  the  Anier= 

**°  ^°  ican  and  European  Wars ,  1 765  = 

3.  Rise  of  the  People  and  '«.^,^V  ^f  >' «•  l"  I^^^"^'  ''•^• 
Growth  of  Parliament.      From  ^^'th  5  Maps.    $0.30.^ 

the  Great  Charter  to  the  Accession  8.  Modern     England,     1820- 

of    Henry    VII.       1215-1485.      By  1885.^  By  Oscar  Browning.  M.A. 

James    Rowley,    M.A.      With    4  $0.30.* 

Maps.    $0.30.*  9.  Epochs  of  English  History. 

A  complete  edition  in  one  volume. 

4,  The  Tudors  and  the  Refor-  Edited  by  Mandell  Creighton, 
mation,  1485  =  1603.  By  the  Right  D.D.  With  23  Maps  and  27  Tables 
Rev.  M.  Creighton.  With  3  Maps.  and  Pedigrees.  Tenth  Edition  (1893). 
$0.30.*  i2mo.     750  pages.     $1.50.* 


Longmans,  Green,  &-  Go's  Publications. 

CONSTITUTIONAL    HISTORY    AND    GOVERNMENT. 

Acland  and    Ransome — A   Hand=book  in  Outline  of  the 
Political  History  of  England  to  1894. 

Chronologically  arranged.     By  the  Rt.  Hon.  A.  H.  Dyke  Acland  and 
Cyril  Ransome,  M. A.    Sixth  Edition.    Crown  8vo.    333  pages.    $2.00. 
This  is  a  college  class-book  for  students  engaged  in  the  study  of  English 
Political  History,  being  used  at  Harvard  University,  University  of  Minne- 
sota, and  in  other  universities  and  colleges. 


English  history,  as  well  as  its  clear 
and  concise  statement  of  the  most 
recent  history,  are  particularly  val- 
uable. I  do  not  see  how  it  could  be 
improved,  or  how  any  teacher  or 
advanced  student  could  afford  to  do 
without  it." 


Mr.  Charles  L,  Wells,  Univer- 
sity of  Minnesota,  Minneapolis, 
Minn.: — "  I  have  found  it  an  inval- 
uable aid  for  the  study  and  teaching 
of  English  history  whether  narrative 
or  constitutional.  Its  admirable  sum- 
maries of  important  documents  and 
of  foreign  affairs  contemporary  with 

Amos — A  Primer  of  the  English  Constitution  and  Gov= 
ernment. 

For  the  use  of  Colleges,  Schools,  and  Private  vStudents.     By  Sheldon 
Amos,  M, A.     Crown  8vo.     262  pages.     $1.75. 

Montague — The  Elements  of  English  Constitutional  Iiist= 
ory  from  the  Earliest  Times  to  the  Present  Day. 

By  F.  C.  Montague,  M.A.,  Professor  of  History,  University  College, 
London,    late    Fellow  of    Oriel    College,    Oxford.      Crown    8vo.     254 
pages.     $1.25. 
This  book  is  designed  to  give  such  an  account  of  the  growth  of  English 

institutions  as  may  be  intelligible  to  those  who  are  beginning  to  read  history. 

So  far  as  the  writer  knows  there  is  no  other  book  which  aims  precisely  at 

this  object. — Extract  from  Preface. 


our  constitutional  development  than 
Mr.  Montague  has  so  dexterously 
condensed  into  a  coaple  of  hundred 
crown  octavo  pages." 


Educational  Times: — "It  would 
be  difficult  to  conceive,  and  certainly 
it  would  be  impossible  to  discover, 
a  more  compact,  lucid,  sane,  exhaust- 
ive,  and    intelligible    exposition    of 

Ransome — The   Rise  of   Constitutional   Government    in 
England. 

Being  a  Series  of  Twenty  Lectures  on  the  History  of  the  English  Con- 
stitution delivered  to  a  Popular  Audience.  By  Cyril  Ransome,  M.A. 
Crown  Svo.     2S0  pages,     $2.00. 

Wakeman   and    Hassall — Essays    Introductory   to    the 
Study  of  English  Constitutional  History. 

By  Resident  Members  of  the  University  of  Oxford,  lulited  by  Henry 
Offley  Wakeman,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  All  Souls  College  and  Tutor  of 
Keble  College,  and  Arthur  Hassall,  M.A. ,  Student  and  Tutor  of 
Christ  Church.     Crown  Svo.     349  pages.     $2.25. 


Longmans,  Green,  &-  Go's  Publications. 


ANCIENT   HISTORY. 

EPOCHS   OF  ANCIENT   HISTORY. 

A  Series  of  books  narrating  the  History  of  Greece  and  Rome,  and  of  their 
Relations  to  Other  Countries  at  Successive  Epochs.  Edited  by  Rev.  Sir 
G.W.  Cox,  Bart.,  M.A.,  and  C.  Sankey,  M.A.  Original  Edition,  io 
volumes.     With  Maps.      i6mo.     Price  of  each  volume,  $i.oo, 

"  There  is  no  school  book  on  ancient  history  equal  to  these  books  in  point 
of  convenience,  thoroughness,  and  literary  finish.  They  furnish  to  teachers 
the  means  of  adding  to  any  school  or  college  course  in  ancient  history  an 
opportunity  for  thorough  investigation  of  special  topics  of  interest." 


The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla. 

By    A.    H.    Bekslv.     With    Maps. 
$i.oo. 

Roman  History.  The  Early 
Empire.  P'rom  the  Assassination 
of  Julius  Caesar  to  that  of  Domitian. 
By  W.  W.  Capes,  M.A.,  late  Fellow 
and  Tutor  of  Queen's  College  ; 
Reader  in  Ancient  History  in  Univ. 
of  Oxford.  With  2  Maps.  $i.oo. 
The  Greeks  and  the  Persians. 
By  the  Rev.  Sir  G.  W.  Cox,  Bart., 
M.A.  With  5  Maps.  $i.oo. 
The  Roman  Empire  of  the  Sec= 
ond  Century;  or,  The  Age  of 
the  Antonines.  By  W.  W.  Capes, 
M.A.,  late  Fellow  and  Tutor  of 
Queen's  College;  Reader  in  Ancient 
History  in  the  University  of  Oxford. 
With  2  Maps.  $i.oo. 
The  Athenian  Empire.  By  the 
Rev.  Sir  George  W.  Cox,  M.A. 
With  5  Maps.     $i.oo. 


Rise  of  the  Macedonian  Empire. 

By  Arthur  M.  Curteis,  M.A., 
formerly  Fellow  of  Trinity  College, 
and  late  Assistant  Master  in  Sher- 
borne School.    With  8  Maps.    $i.oo. 

Early  Rome.  From  the  Founda- 
tion of  the  City  to  its  Destruction 
by  the  Gauls.  By  W.  Ihne,  Ph.D., 
Professor  at  the  University  of  Heidel- 
berg.    With  a  Map.     $i'.oo. 

The  Roman  Triumvirates.    By 

Ciiarees  Merivale,  D.D.,  Dean 
of  Ely.     With  a  INIap.     $i.oo. 

The  Spartan  and  Theban  Su= 
premacies.  By  Charles  Sankey, 
M.A.     With  5  Maps.     $i.oo. 

Rome  and  Carthage.  The  Punic 
Wars.  By  R.  Bosworth  Smith, 
M.A.,  Assistant  Master  in  Harrow 
School;  formerly  Fellow  in  Trinity 
College,  Oxford.     $i.oo. 


GREECE. 

Abbott — A  Skeleton  Outline  of  Greek  History. 

Chronologically  Arranged.  By  Evelyn  Abbott,  M.A.,  LL.D.  i2mo, 
193  pages.     $0.90. 

Cox — A  General  History  of  Greece. 

From  the  Earliest  Period  to  the  Death  of  Alexander  the  Great  ;  with  a 
sketch  of  the  subsequent  History  to  the  Present  Time.  By  the  Rev.  Sir 
G.  W.  Cox,  Bart.,  M.A.  With  11  Maps  and  Plans.    Crown  8vo.    $2.00. 


Longmans,  Green,  6r  Go's  Publications, 


Greece —  Continued, 
Oman — A  History  of  Greece  from  the  Earliest  Times  to 
the  Death  of  Alexander  the  Great. 

By  C.  W.  C.  Oman,  M.A.,  F.S.A.,  etc.     With  12  Maps  (2  colored) 
and  Plans,  Side-notes,  and  full  Index.      i2mo.     568  pages.     $1.50. 

*^*  "' Oman's  History  of  Greece '  will  serve  to  indicate  the  amount  of 
knowledge  demanded  in  Grecian  history  for  entrance  to  college." 

[Extract  from  T/w  Harvard  University  Catalogue ?[ 

During  the  four  or  more  years  since  this  book  was  published  it  has  taken 
its  place  as  a  standard  School  History,  recommended  by  leading  colleges  in 
their  catalogues  and  used  in  the  best  schools.  The  present  edition — just 
issued — contains  new  colored  maps. 


Prof.  Richard  Hudson,  Univer- 
sityof  Michigan,  Ann  Arbor: — "The 
best  single  volume  of  the  History  of 
Greece  published." 

Grafton  Gushing,  Teacher  of 
English  in  Groton  School,  Groton, 
Mass.: — "We  have  used  'Oman's 
History  of  Greece'  in  the  Groton 
School  for  several  years  and  consider 
it  the  best  short  history  we  have 
ever  seen.  We  can  thoroughly  rec- 
ommend it." 

Julia  Anable,  Teacher  of  History 
in  the  Misses  Anable's  School,  New 
Brunswick,  N.  J.: — "It  gives  me 
pleasure  to  tell  you  of  the  satisfaction 
I  have  had  for  two  years  in  using 
your  '  Oman's  History  of  Greece.'  It 
gives  a  concise  though  interesting 
picture  of  the  social,  as  well  as  of  the 
political  life  of  the  early  Greeks,  rous- 
ing and  sustaining  the  interest  of 
almost  every  pupil.  I  consider  it  a 
most  admirable  text-book,  stimulat- 
ing a  love  of  further  and  deeper 
study  of  ancient  peoples." 

Arthur  H.  Wilde,  Instructor  in 
History,  Northwestern  University, 
Evanston,  111. : — ' '  I  know  of  no  text- 
book in  Grecian  History  which  equals 
Oman  for  maturer  students.  Its 
«jne  is  critical,  and  the  style  terse 
and  agreeable." 

Edmund  K.  Alden,  Department 
>£  History,  Packer  Gollegiate  Insti- 


tute, Brooklyn,  N,  Y. : — "  I  think  it 
meets  the  wants  of  the  average  teacher 
better  than  any  School  History  of 
Greece  with  which  I  am  acquainted." 

Gharles  W.  Mann,  Lewis  Insti- 
tute, Chicago,  111.: — "I  have  used 
'  Oman's  History  of  Greece  '  for  four 
years  with  the  best  of  results.  It 
is  scholarly  but  independent,  and  full 
enough  to  make  the  use  of  reference 
books  not  so  imperative." 

S.  B.  Harding,  Indiana  Univer- 
sity, Bloomington,  Ind.:  —  "This 
work  has  been  in  use  in  our  Fresh- 
man Class  in  history  ever  since  its 
first  appearance.  It  has  given  uni- 
versal satisfaction,  both  to  teachers 
and  pupils,  and  while  texts  in  other 
fields  of  history  have  been  changed 
over  and  over  again,  this  promises 
to  hold  its  own  for  a  long  time  to 
come.  I  know  of  no  better  text  for 
a  class  beginning  the  study  of  Greek 
history. " 

W.  P.  Trent,  of  the  University  of 
the  South,  Sewanee,Tenn.: — "1  have 
used  '  Oman's  History  of  Greece'  for 
several  years,  and  I  regard  it  as  one 
of  the  best  College  Histories  that  I 
have  any  knowledge  of." 

Prof.  Herbert  E.  Mills,  Vassar 
College,  Poughkeepsie,  N.  Y. : — "  It 
seems  to  me  a  most  admirable  book — 
by  far  the  best  School  History  of 
Greece  in  existence." 


Longmans,  Green,  &  Go's  Publications. 


ROME, 
How  and   Leigh— A   History  of  Rome  to  the  Death  of 
Caesar. 

By  W.  W.  How,  M.A.,  of  Merton  College,  Oxford,  and  H.  D.  Leigh, 
M.A.,  of  Corpus  Christ!  College,  Oxford.  With  g  lithograph  Maps, 
12  Maps  and  Plans  in  the  text,  and  numerous  Illustrations  from 
archaeological  sources.     Large  crown  8vo.     590  pages.     $2.00.* 

This  is  a  text-book  for  colleges,  and  is  in  use  as  such  in  Harvard 
University,  University  of  Pennsylvania,  Johns  Hopkins  University,  Indiana 
University,  University  of  Michigan,  and  many  other  leading  Institutions 
throughout  the  country. 

The  authors  have  dwelt  at  some  length  on  the  more  important  and  event- 
ful wars,  and  on  the  history  of  the  Roman  army,  and  have  attempted  to 
describe  clearly,  if  briefly,  the  development  of  the  constitution. 

For  the  selection  of  numerous  illustrations  the  authors  are  indebted  to 
Mr.  Cecil  Smith,  of  the  British  Museum.  They  are  in  all  cases  derived 
from  authentic  archaeological  sources,  and  have  been  taken,  so  far  as  possi- 
ble, from  well-known  and  accessible  collections,  above  all  from  the  British 
Museum, 


Charles  E.  Bennett,  Cornell 
University,  Ithaca,  N.  Y.,  in  77ie 
Amert'cau  Historical  Review  for 
April: — "This  is  a  valuable  book 
and  ought  to  be  warmly  welcomed. 
The.  subject  is  no  new  one,  but  the 
authors  of  the  volume  before  us 
approach  it  with  an  unusually  high 
conception  of  their  task  and  with 
unusual  equipment  for  its  execution. 
While  not  neglecting  the  more  im- 
portant achievements  of  the  Roman 
arms  and  the  triumphs  of  Roman 
foreign  policy,  Messrs.  How  and 
Leigh  have  addressed  themselves 
with  special  fullness  to  the  internal 
history  of  Rome,  to  a  consideration 
of  the  moving  forces  in  its  affairs, 
and  above  all  to  the  development 
and  decay  of  the  republican  con- 
stitution. The  volume  displays 
throughout  a  firm  grasp  of  the  sub- 
ject-matter, wise  perspective  and 
clear  arrangement,  while  the  exposi- 
tion is  always  interesting  and  at 
times  is  invested  with  a  positive  lit- 
erary charm.  The  work  is  illustrated 
by  excellent  maps,  plans  and  numer- 
ous cuts  of  archaeological  and  his- 
torical interest.     An  index  and  two 


appendices,  on  the  assemblies  and 
the  chief  Roman  roads,  conclude 
the  volume." 

Fred  Morrow  Fling,  University 
of  Nebraska,  Lincoln,  Neb. : — "  The 
narrations  are  excellent,  and  are 
clearly  the  work  of  historical  stu- 
dents and  not  simply  bookmakers. 
The  illustrations  are  both  attractive 
and  scientific." 

Arthur  H.  Wilde,  Northwestern 
University,  Evanston,  111.: — "The 
illustrations  are  quite  outside  of  the 
common  run  of  books  on  Roman 
History  for  schools  and  possess  high 
educational  value.  I  like  the  maps. 
The  authors  have  well  discussed  the 
fundamentals  of  the  Roman  Con- 
stitution. The  subject  of  Carthage 
is  well  done.  Good  judgment  is 
shown  in  the  space  given  the  legend- 
ary and  real  history  of  early  Rom^, 
which  is  not  always  done.  These 
are  excellences  which  make  the  book 
very  acceptable." 


Longmans,  Green,  &-  Go's  Publications. 

.    — .^ — *i 

LONGMANS^  HISTORICAL  NOVELS. 

Edited,  with  Introduction  to  each  volume,  by  George  Laurence  Gomme. 

England  does  not  possess  a  national  epic  and  but  few  national  traditions. 
But  its  literature  is  enriched  by  romances,  dramatic  and  narrative,  founded 
on  the  events  of  almost  all  epochs  in  the  national  history.  The  quality  of 
these  romances  varies,  of  course,  but  some  of  them  are  of  classical  value, 
many  are  far  above  the  average  of  fiction,  and  nearly  all  are  of  interest  and 
value  to  the  literary  history  of  the  country. 

It  is  proposed  to  reproduce  such  of  these  romances  as  are  available  and 
suitable  for  the  purpose  in  a  uniform  series,  arranged  chronologically  under 
the  reigns  of  the  sovereigns  to  which  they  belong.  Each  volume  will  be 
accompanied  by  an  introduction,  which  will  shortly  state  the  evidence  for 
the  historical  events  dealt  with  in  the  story,  and  describe  how  far  the  author 
has  departed  from  and  how  far  adhered  to  real  history.  It  will  also  describe 
the  costumes,  weapons,  and  other  characteristics  of  the  period,  the  places 
and  buildings  referred  to,  and  will  give  such  biographical  particulars  of  the 
characters  who  appear  before  the  reader  as  may  be  necessary  to  elucidate 
the  story  and  its  treatment.  The  introduction  will  also  trace  the  historical 
continuity  from  volume  to  volume,  and  the  series,  as  a  whole,  will  thus 
represent  English  history  as  it  has  been  portrayed  in  fiction.  Illustrations 
,-f  all  the  principal  features  will  be  given,  which  will  include  reproductions 
jf  royal  and  historical  signatures,  coins,  seals,  and  heraldic  devices. 

Lord  Lytton's  Harold, The  Last  Rufus,  orthe  Red  King.    (Anon- 

Of  the   Saxon    Kings.      [Harold.]  ymous.)     1S3S.     [wniiam  II.] 

With  15  Illustrations.     Pp.  xcvi-415.  {Preparing 

$1.50. 

Macfarlane's     (Charles)    The 

Camp  of    Refuge.     [Wiiiiam   1.]  Kingsley's  (Charles)  Westward 

With    20    Illustrations.      Pp.    Ixvii-  Ho  !      With   20    illustrations.     Pp. 

427.     $1.50.  xlix-^QS.     [Elizabeth.]    $1.50. 

BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN. 

Edited  by  II.  F.  Wilson,  M.A. 

A  set  of  volumes  illustrating  the  growth  and  expansion  of  the  Queen's 
Empire,  as  shown  in  the  lives  of  the  soldiers  and  governors  who  have  played 
the  chief  parts.  Each  volume  will  contain  the  best  portrait  obtainable  of 
its  subject  and  a  map  showing  his  special  contributions  to  the  Imperial 
Edifice. 

1.  Sir  Walter  Ralegh;  the  Prit-      3-  John  and  Sebastian  Cabot; 
ish    ])(jmini()n     of     tlic    West.       P.y       llie    Discovery    of    Nortli    America. 
Martin  A.  S.  IIumk.    With  Photo-       l!y  C.  Raymond  Peazlf.y.     With 
gravure     Frontispiece     and     Maps.       Maps.     331  pages.     $1.50. 
Crown  8vo.     Pp.  XX.-431.     $1.50.         4.  Rajah    Brooke ;    the    English- 

2.  Sir  Thomas  Maitland  ;  the  "i^"''  ='^  •^^'•^■■-  "^  ''']  ^'''''^J^']-,\^^\^: 
Mastery  of  the  Mediterranean.  Willi  l>y  Sir  SrKNSKR  St.  John,  G.C.M.G. 
photogravure  Portrait  and  Mai)s.  5.  Lord  Clive  ;  the  Foundation  of 
By  Walter  Frewen  Lord.      Pp.  Jhiiisli  Rule  in  India.     P.y  Sir  A.  J. 


MX-301.     11^1.50. 


Arbuthnot,  K.C.S.L,  CLE. 


FOURTEEN  DAY  USE 

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